


ij^i:\^ti 



HE 
ERNHL 
RPOSE 





Class ^ 

Book 

Copightl^". 



COPyRIGHT DEPOSIT 



To iHt Rkadkk : 

Ihe favor ot a letter expressing' your 
judgment of this book, either favorably or un- 
favorably, especially as to its value as a help to 
a more clear understandino of the Bible so far 
as it goes, is requested. Please address letter 
to the care of the publisher, Geo. P. Houston, 
514 Main St., Cincinnati, O. 

Yours Respectfully, 

J, H. GILRUTH. 



THE 



Eternal Purpose 



James H. Gilruth 



''According to the eternal purpose which He purposed 
in Christ Jesus our Lord." — Ephesians 3:11, 



CINCINNATI . 

GEORGE P. HOUSTON 

Printer and Publisher 

1904 



•f\\ 



SEP 24 1904 
fght Entry 

OI.A§S ^ XXo. Ma 

COPYB 



Copyrighted, 1904, 

BY 

James, H; Gilruth. 



BTisr 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

PURPOSE OF THE CREATOR. 

Confidence and love through knowledge. Pursuit of knowl- 
edge is legitimate — indifference is abnormal and perverse. 
God's design — A family of loving children. Creative days. 
Seventh day equals whole period of human history — the 
the time during which the family of God should be devel- 
oped. 

CHAPTER II. 

CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Man is made of the same materials as all animals. ** Breath 
of lives" is atmospheric air. Became a living soul. All 
animals are living souls. Something in man's constitution 
not found in other animals. Attributes of the Creator — 
spiritual. Three parts — animal, mental, spiritual. Man 
perfectly free to choose, because he is the image and like- 
ness of the Creator. 

CHAPTER III. 

OUT-WORKING OF THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD 

IN THE FLESH, WHILE IGNORANT OF 

GOOD AND EVIL. 

Man's organism perfect for the purpose intended. Adam and 
Eve did not know good or evil. God-like constitution, 
unguided by knowledge and love, is self-willed. Whole 
story of creation and sin not an allegory. The penalty of 
sin is destruction of life — the grave. Tree of life antidote 
to disease. Cast out of the garden, Adam and Eve were 
angry. Law of heredity exhibited in Cain and Abel. 



iv Contents 



Effects of sin not eradicated by long line of righteous 
ancestry. Effects of sin are eradicated by the resurrection 
in a spiritual body. 



CHAPTER IV. 
antediIvUVian dispensation. 

Dispensational truth. Antediluvian dispensation. Preada- 
miteism. Cain built a city. Rapid increase of human 
race. Great age of men. No human government. In- 
struction in righteousness given. Offerings of Cain and 
Abel. Some were godly — some were ungodly. Earth 
filled with violence. Arts and sciences. Sons of God — 
giants — men of renown: Who or what were they? Opin- 
ions of post-apostolic fathers. The oldest belief — * 'An- 
gels who kept not their first estate. ' ' Legends of the demi- 
gods. Noah perfect in his generation. 



CHAPTER V. 

PATRIARCHAIv DISPENSATION. 

Human government authorized. Sinful man unable to rule 
justly. Idolatry and beastliness, early degeneracy. Book 
of Job. Customs and beliefs. Freak of nature. Inbreed- 
ing. Human life shortened. Migration and dispersion. 
Isolation and inbreeding the cause of physical diversities. 
The lesson of the age. Circumcision. The close of the 
age. Enslavement of the Israelites. 



CHAPTER VI. 

DISPENSATION OI^ THE LAW. 

Egypt the leading nation. Happenings in Egypt soon known 
to all other nations. God's purpose was to establish His 
name in all the earth. Israelites not monotheists at that 
time. Kingdom of Saul. Smite Amalek. Elohim. Ef- 
fect on other nations. Zoroaster. Gautama. Confu- 
cius. Condition of the Gentiles at the close of Mosaic 
age. Other matters foretold by the prophets. Kingdom 



Contents 



of God promised. Israelites expected to be rulers over all 
other nations under the great king. Other lines of prophecy 
which they overlooked. Divine truths held in unrighteous- 
ness. Law does not win the heart. By the law man learns 
that he is out of harmony with God. Commandments are 
for the animal man only : not for the spiritual man. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The RbconciIvIation. 

jesus christ. 

God's next step taken to win man'slove. Must reveal His 
character to men by a man. Christ the manifestor of God. 
His teachings different from the teachings of the scribes: 
and were a reproach to priests and elders. They hated 
Him. Had Him put to death. Who was this Jesus? 
One archangel only. Michael — who as God. The pre- 
existent Christ. Was made flesh — became a man. Was 
not ' 'the only begotten Son ' ' until born of a woman. Why 
His death? Plan founded on the constitution of man. 
Romantic incident. He died with us and for us, not instead 
of us. We could not perceive His love if He had not died 
with us. If we could not perceive His love, we could not 
know God — so could not become His children. Burden 
laid on Christ was not removed from men. All that Christ 
suffered w^as endured for the effect it would have on us. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Reconciuation. 

animal sacrifices. 

Idea of sacrifices came down from our first parents. Out- 
ward form universally retained, but the spirit of it lost. 
Heathen idea was substitutional atonement. Hebrew 
sacrifices were on a different basis. Hebrew idea after- 
ward degraded to leveloftheheathen conception. Reproved 
by the prophets. A broken spirit and changed heart the 
only ground of God's favor. True meaning of sacrifice for 
sin. I\Iortify your members. Hand on head of victim. 



vi Contents 

Sacrifice and baptism. Sacrifices that were eaten. Sacri- 
fices the blood of which was presented before the vail, 
and those of which the blood was presented in the most 
holy, before the ark. The Lord's goat — the scape goat. 
Whole burnt offerings. The skin not offered on the altar: 
neither could honey nor leaven be placed on the altar of 
God. 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Reconciliation. 

propitiation. 

Greek words express heathen ideas. Heathen sense of 
words not always the gospel sense. Translation must be 
"according to the analogy of the faith." Character of 
the Creator is the foundation on which to find the meaning 
of revealed truth. Propitiation in the heathen sense; 
same word in the gospel sense. Heathen sense came down 
to us through the Romish Church. Not God, but man 
is to be reconciled. Christ our advocate not to the Father 
but with the Father. Soul tired of sin. In the name of 
Jesus Christ. No other name possible. He only can 
manifest God, for in Him alone dwells the fullness of the 
deity. Jesus the standard of righteousness. God is pro- 
pitiated when He sees the likeness of Jesus in the repentant 
sinner. The meeting place. Redemption. Bought and 
Price, The Blood. Blood of sprinkling. Portraiture of 
substitution. 

CHAPTER X. 

DISPENSATION 01^ 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN THE EARTH. 

The next step. Whole human race brought into condition 
that they may know God. Heretofore God has not tried 
to have all men know the truth. In the time of the king- 
dom the glory of God shall be known to every human 
soul. The mountain of the Lord's house. Men of Nineveh 
and Sodom. Heathen shall confess the glory of the Father. 
Gates of the city not shut. Spirit and bride say come. 
Conditions of entering the kingdom. Nicodemus' ques- 
tions. Wrong idea of the kingdom. Born of water — 
born of the Spirit. Kingdom not of two parts. No flesh 



Contents vii 

and blood in the kingdom of God. The Resurrection. 
Great differencesofindividualsinthe resurrection. Restora- 
tion to Hfe of Lazarus. Jesus was raised a spirit being. 
The Spiritual body. Spirit of the world — Spirit which 
is of God. Sown in weakness. Enoch translated. 

CHAPTER XL 

DISPENSATION OF^ THE GOSPElv AGE. 

Necessary first to understand the kingdom age in order to 
understand the gospel age. The real purpose may now be 
clearly seen. The commission "Make disciples" did not 
mean convert all the world. Dispensation of the law did 
not lap over on the dispensation of the gospel. Distinction 
between the kingdom ageandthegospelagesimpleandplain. 
A people for His name. Election according to His purpose. 
The elect chosen as mediators to reconcile men to God. 
Mountain of the Lord's house. Royal priesthood — sons 
of God. Serving apprenticeship. Teaching them to ob- 
serve. Many called — few chosen. Sit on the throne — 
stand before the throne. The crown — the palm. "Beware, 
lest another take thy crown." Light-givers — light-reflec- 
tors. 

CHAPTER XH. 

EXACT KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WILL. 

Resume of the dispensational ages. Is it possible to know 
truth from error? Bible answer. Walk in the light. 
First step of discipleship. Right intention — wrong belief. 
Gnosis and epignosis. Partial knowledge generates division 
— exact knowledge generates peace and fellowship. Not 
caring to know exactly. Deceived deceivers. How to 
determine between truth and error. Analogy of the faith. 
Foundation principles; first strata — attributes of God: 
second strata — constitution of man : third strata — finished 
completeness of Divine revelation. 

CHAPTER Xni. 

THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD. 
High priest typified Christ Jesus. Priests (Aaron's sons) 



viii Contents 



typified the royal priesthood. Ceremonies of installation 
of Aaronic priesthood, typified things essential to the royal 
priesthood. Sin destroys harmony. Be holy, for God is 
holy. Definition of terms. Union of faith and love gener- 
ates devotion. Wrong belief respecting sin and purity 
affect development of Christian character. A genuine 
conversion. First blessing — second blessing. Truth the 
means of sanctification. In this life, no follower of Christ 
gets beyond being tempted. Perfecting holiness. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THK SABBATH OF^ THE LORD. 

God ceased (sabbathed) from creative work and began 
development of human race. Israelites did not cease from 
their own ways, by perfect trust in God. Sabbath-keeping 
means undoubting trust in God. A few from Adam to 
Moses entered into that spiritual rest. Peace of God. 
Institution of seventh-day sabbath. Fourth command- 
ment. Moral principles of decalogue known to ancients, 
but not as a covenant. A covenant was first made with the 
Israelites. Holy convocation. Neglect of sabbath day 
evidence that Israelites did not care to honor God. Posi- 
tion in the decalogue of fourth commandment. Seventh- 
day sabbath-keeping. Seventh-day sabbath passed away. 
My sabbath — your sabbaths. The rest (sabbathing) that 
remains to the people of God. Every day alike. 



CHAPTER XV. 

BAPTISM. 

Spirit of the world. Spirit which is of God. Fruit of the 
Spirit. Spiritual gifts. Miracles beginning and ending 
each dispensational age. Do spiritual gifts continue? 
Baptism of fire. Heart not purified by fire, but by the 
word of God. Water baptism. Mosaic types ceased; 
but human nature not changed. New types in gospel 
dispensation. Water baptism not of the Mosaic law. 
Washings of the law, not baptism. John the first to bap- 
tize. Baptism appointed by the Lord. Self-baptism not 
Christian baptism. True meaning disclosed. Symbol of 



Contents ix 



death and resurrection. Not a symbol of purification. 
Not a ceremony of initiation to churcli membership 
"Baptize in the name." Ancient superstitions. Not in 
order to forgiveness of sins. Infant baptism. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE PASSOVER AND THE LORD'S SUPPER. 

Old Testament pictures and New Testament declarations 
together give correct understanding of truth. The Pass- 
over. Jesus the Lamb of God. "Eat my flesh" — imita- 
tion of Christ's life. "Drink My blood" — receiving the 
Spirit of Christ. Fruit of His Spirit — manifestation 
before the world. The Lord's supper — a new ordinance. 
Received from the Lord. Spiritual meaning of bread — 
of wine. Eat and drink judgment — not discerning the 
body. Appointed to meet our needs. When to observe — 
no law respecting time. 



THE ETERNAL PURPOSE. 



CHAPTER I. 

PURPOSE OI? THE CREATORS 

It is not within the scope of the finite mind to 
know all the motives which determine the Infinite 
Mind in any action which He may take ; but there 
are some facts, which, coming within the range of 
human discernment, become a rightful prize in the 
treasur^^ of our present knowledge and under- 
standing of His purposes and plans. And these 
things, when seen, always turn to the consolation 
and encouragement of the persons discerning them, 
establishing their confidence and love toward the 
Creator. 

The desire to know the mysteries of our exist- 
ence is inborn; it is a part of the action of our 
human constitution. Pursuit of that knowledge, 
therefore, is the legitimate action of the mind ; and 
indifference and inattention to the subject is con- 
trary to the normal working of our constitution, and 
therefore abnormal and perv^erse. 

The purpose of the Creator as to the finished 
condition of man, and the plan he has adopted for 
the accomplishment of that purpose, constitute 



2 The Eternal Purpose 

what, in the New Testament, is called, * 'The gospel 
of our Lord Jesus Christ.'/ 

It is indeed, "Glad Tidings of great joy" to all 
persons who will give to it that reasonable atten- 
tion, with that integrity of intention which alone 
is worthy of the intelligent mind acting in har- 
mony with its own constitution. 

From the standpoint of human observation, 
unaided by Divine Revelation, the condition of the 
human race from the very beginning is in great 
confusion. It is a fact that disease, pain and an- 
guish of body and mind is the common lot; great 
expectations end in disappointments and all end 
in the grave. 

Is it any wonder, then, that intellectual beings, 
such as men, when reasoning only from the seemingly 
confused condition of human life, should sometimes 
get bewildered, and conclude that the Creator 
either was not able to make things better, and there- 
fore not almighty, or, if able, that He is not good, 
because he has not prevented evil getting into the 
world? But to look at these things from a deeper 
reasoning, is it not clear that we must first know 
the purpose for which we are created, and the ulti- 
mate design of our Creator in giving us existence, 
before we can possibly judge as to the wisdom and 
goodness of present conditions; even with approx- 
imate correctness and the fairness of right reason? 

If the Creator makes known to us His purpose, 
the object he had in view in giving us a being; and 
also, tells us plainly what He has done and is now 
doing with us and for us, we may correctly reckon 



Purpose of the Creator 3 

that the present circumstances of our race are 
a condition in the process by which He will accom- 
plish His ultimate purpose. 

That he has made that purpose known, and that 
it is recorded in the Bible, has been the belief of 
multitudes of persons during many centuries and 
we will assume that such a belief is well founded in 
fact, and is correct ; and while it is not the primary 
object of this work to prove the authenticity and 
credibility of the scriptures, a careful and honest 
review of them, will, doubtless, have that effect. 

Let us then turn to the Holy Scriptures, and 
near the end of the last book is written a vision 
which the seer, John, had. He says, ''And I heard 
a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the 
tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell 
with them and they shall be His people and God 
Himself shall be with them, and be their God, and 
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and 
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor 
crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for 
the former things have passed away. And He 
that sat upon the throne said. Behold, I make all 
things new, and He said unto me. Write; for these 
words are true and faithful. And He said unto me, 
It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning 
and the end: I will give unto him that is athirst, 
of the fountains of the water of life freely. He that 
overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be 
his God and he shall be my son." Rev. 21 : 3-7. 

That vision is the picture of a great family: 
a father surrounded by his children, every one of 



4 The Eternal Purpose 

whom is in perfect accord with the Father; and 
every one enjoying the fullness of His favor. It 
declares the purpose which actuated Him in the 
creation of the human race, namely, the making of 
a living being that could know Him and understand 
Him and love Him and harmonize perfectly with 
Him, in sentiment, intention, action and method, 
and it sets forth man in his finished condition, the 
friend, companion and associate of Deity, in the 
sense that loyal and affectionate children may be 
the friends and companions of a strong, wise and 
loving parent. 

And here it is proper to say that if the Creator 
has any other ultimate purpose, respecting the 
members of the human race, than the formation 
of such a family, it is not written in the Bible. 

It is manifest that the human family has been, 
from the first, undergoing a system of tutelage. It 
is as if the Creator has been conducting a great 
kindergarten in the earth, where He has been pre- 
paring the human race for a higher school in another 
life. 

The text-books in use are the book of Nature, 
Human Experience, and the Bible. The first and 
third are manifestly composed by the same author; 
for when correctly read they agree perfectly in their 
testimony; they corroborate each other; and all 
three must be studied in conjunction, for attain- 
ment of the highest knowledge concerning both 
God and humanity. 

The questions of most absorbing interest to an 
intelligent man, as he contemplates his situation, 



Purpose of the Creator 5 

are, *'What is this earth and the sun and moon and 
stars? How came they into existence? And what 
am I, and how came I into being? And whither do 
I go?'' These are the questions that the Bible 
claims to answer fully and satisfactorily. 

In all the range of literature there is nothing 
that bears comparison with the first and second 
chapters of Genesis, so concise, yet so complete. 
The story of creation is there told in outline, from 
beginning to finish, and in the exact order of its 
progression. 

Many have been the attempts to overthrow the 
testimony of that narrative. Science has been 
invoked to declare that there was no need of a 
sentient Creator ; that generation was the self-action 
of matter ; and that species evolved by unintelligent 
self-action, from the lower to the higher. 

But Science, after much patient investigation, 
answers back that there can not be found a single 
case of spontaneous generation of life, either vege- 
table or animal; nor one instance in which one 
species has evolved into another, either higher or 
lower. 

It has ever been the unhappy lot of truth to be 
wounded in the house of its friends ; and the ignor- 
ance and careless reading of many who believe in and 
are even accredited teachers of the people, in respect 
to the Divine records, have given some occasion for 
the ridicule and some grounds for the specious 
arguments, under which the haters of Divine revel- 
ation have sought to bury the Bible story. 

It is a fact that until quite recently (the last 



6 The Eternal Purpose 

half of the nineteenth century), it was the common 
opinion of Christian people, that the six creative 
days of the first chapter of Genesis were of only 
twenty-four hours each. No reason was ever assigned 
for that belief excepting that the Bible said, *'In six 
days the Lord made heaven and earth and the sea 
and all that in them is. ' ' Ex. 20 :1 1 . 

As the sciences of astronomy and geology 
developed and there seemed to be a conflict of 
statement between the record of Nature and that 
of Revelation, a more careful reading of both was 
forced ; for if both were written by the Creator they 
could not contradict each other. 

The results of more careful study have been 
most happy. Some things claimed by students of 
nature were found to be only wild guessings; 
while some things claimed by students of the Bible 
have been found to be wide apart from the actual 
Bible statements: 

Perhaps there is nothing in which careless read- 
ing is more apparent than in the claim that **heaven 
and earth and the sea and all that in them is" were 
made in six twenty-four-hour days. 

Many able and scholarly men have written 
showing by the scripture use of the word dayy that 
the twenty-four-hour doctrine was purely an assump- 
tion and contrary to the real teachings of the Bible. 

There are many passages in the Scriptures, in 
which the word day (Heb. Yom) unqestionably 
stands for a long period of time. In Ps. 98:8 **The 
day of temptation" means the whole period of 
Israel's wandering in the wilderness; it was forty 



Purpose of the Creator 7 

years long. "The day of the Lord's wrath" Zeph. 
1:18, represents a time of great trouble which shall 
come upon all the earth. The "Day of salvation," 
Isa. 49:8, is the long period of time during which 
the people of God shall be delivered from the 
dominion and from the consequences of sin, through 
Christ Jesus. And for a like use of the word day 
(Heb. Yom) see Isa. 2:12; 3:18; 4:1, 2; 5:30; Joel 
1:15; 2:1, 2; 3:18. And other passages are easily 
found. 

From these Scriptures we see that there is 
nothing in the word day which limits the meaning 
to one exact measure of time. 

Let us now carefully notice it as used in the 
story of creation and we can not do better in this 
than to quote Professor Dana in his summing up 
of the uses of the word day (Yom) in Genesis, 
first chapter, he says, "First, in verse 5, light in 
general is called day, the darkness, night. Second, 
in the same verse, evening and morning make the 
first day, before the sun appears. Third, in verse 14, 
day stands for twelve hours, the period of daylight, 
as dependent on the sun. Fourth, same verse, 
in the phrase, *days and seasons,' day stands for a 
period of twenty-four hours. Fifth, at the close of 
the account, in verse 4 of the second chapter, day 
means the whole period of creation. These uses are 
the same that w^e have in our own language." 

While then it is plain that the Bible does not 
affirm, nor even suggest, that the creative days 
were twenty-four-hour days, that other book of 
God, the record of nature, seems to positively 



8 



Tlie Eternal Purpose 



affirm that the creative days were six long periods 
of time, probably of very unequal duration. 

It would, indeed, be interesting to know just 
how long the creative process was in progress, but 
that knowledge is not essential to us at present; 
and so far as ''present truth" (2 Pet. 1:12), is con- 
cerned, it matters not if the wildest conjectures are 
believed and millions of years are accounted to the 
six creative days. 

The conclusions to which the ablest students 
have arrived, comparing the two records, Nature 
and the Bible, have been tabulated in parallel 
columns by Professor Dawson, in his book, "The 
Origin of the World ;" which we here quote : 



Biblical Aeons. 



The Beginning. 

First Day — Earth mantled 
by the Vaporous Deep — 
Production of Light. 



Second Day — Earth cove-ed 
by the Waters — lHn-mativ)n 
of the Atmosphere. 

Third Day — Emergence of 
D:y Land — Introduction of 
Vegetation 



Fourth Day — Completion of 
the arrangemc.it of tlie 
Solar System. 



Periods deduced from scien- 
tific considerations. 

Creation of Matter. 

Condensation of Planetary 
Bodies from a nebulous 
mass — Hypothesis of orig- 
inal incandescence. 

Primitive Universal Ocean, 
and establishment of At- 
mospheric Equilibrium. 

Elevation of the land which 
furnished the materials of 
the oldest rocks — Eozoic 
Period of Geology. 

Metamorphism of Eozoic 
rocks and disturbances pre- 
ceding t he Cambrian epoch 
—Present arrangement of 
vSeasms- Dominion of * 'Ex- 
isting Causes'* begins. 



Purpose of the Creator 



9 



Fifth Day — Invertebrates 
and Fishes, and afterwards 
great Reptiles and Birds 
created. 

Sixth Day — Introduction of 
Mammals — Creation of Man 
and Edenic Group of Ani- 
mals. 

Seventh Day — Cessation of 
Work of Creation — Fall 
and Redemption of Man. 

Eighth Day — New Heavens 
and Earth to succeed the 
Human Epoch — * 'The Rest 
(Sabbath), that remains to 
the people of God. 



Paleozoic Period — Reign of 
Invertebrates and Fishes. 

Mesozoic Period — Reign of 
Reptiles. 

Tertiary Period — Reign of 

Mammals. 
Post-Tertiary — Existing 

Mammals and Man. 

Period of Human History. 



The seventh day is simply announced ; it has no 
evening and morning Uke the preceding six days. 

The most obvious inference, therefore, is that it 
is still continuing. Such is the suggestion of the 
author just quoted ; and it is also the conclusion of 
many of the ablest scholars. 

It is written, "Thus the heavens and the earth 
were finished and all the host of them, and on the 
seventh day God ended His work, which he had 
made, and God blessed the Seventh day and sancti- 
fied it." 

He * 'sanctified it," that is, He set it apart to the 
accomplishment of a purpose; but the purpose was 
not the creating of anything; for the creating and 
making was finished. And He "blessed it," that 
is, He decreed that it should be a day of success and 
satisfaction to himself, a glorious day. 



10 The Eternal Purpose 

What was the purpose to which he set it apart? 
Jesus says, ''The Sabbath was made for man/' 
That is, it is the period of time during which the 
Creator will, by a system of education, which He 
will Himself conduct, develop man into a being 
suited in all respects to Himself, a family of willing, 
affectionate children, who shall find their joy and 
satisfaction in Him, their Father and their God. 

Beginning then with the history which God has 
given to us of the creation of mankind, let us follow 
the story with careful reflection, with humble minds 
and with honest, reverent hearts, and observe the 
prominent points and items of the statement be- 
lieving that, ''The word of the Lord is pure,'' and 
that it is written for our instruction, that as men of 
God, we may be thoroughly prepared to tell the 
story of redeeming love so correctly and so clearly 
that our work shall abide when tried by the fire. 



Constitution of Man 1 1 



CHAPTER II. 

CONSTITUTION OF THE LIVING BEING CALLED MAN. 

''And God said, Let us make man in our image, 
after our likeness ; and let them have dominon over 
the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and 
over the cattle and over the earth and over every 
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.'* 

*'So God created man in his own image, in the 
image of God created He him ; male and female 
created He them. 

''And the Lord God formed man of the dust of 
the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath 
of life, and man became a living soul." Gen. 1 :26, 
27;2:7. 

THE BODY. 

As to the material of his corporeal organism, 
man is made of the same elements that compose 
all things in the earth — "The dust of the ground," 
and when the body had been composed, God 
"breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." 

The words, "breath of life" have been interpreted 
by some theologians to mean a certain immaterial 
entity, independent of and superior to the corporeal 
organism, and they call it "the spiritual nature** 
of man. 



12 The Eternal Purpose 

Now without casting any doubt on what may be 
the true doctrine of man's spiritual nature, it can 
not be allowed for one moment that these words 
in any degree refer to it. The statement is plain, 
and any interpretation like that referred to does 
unwarranted violence to simple language; it is a 
gross misconception and inevitably leads to con- 
fusion. 

The nostrils, into which was put the "breath of 
life" are the external organs through which atmos- 
pheric air enters the lungs, where it feeds and puri- 
fies the blood: and without which there is no life 
in the body; but in the action of inhaling the air, 
there always is life. 

Of the words ''breath of life,'' life is put in the 
singular number by the translators in the authorized 
version, but in the original Hebrew it is plural — 
liveSy and evidently, the plural only, gives the true 
and simple meaning. 

Atmospheric air which we breathe is the breath 
of all lives, whether animal or vegetable. Nothing 
does nor can live without it; and nothing is, nor 
can be without life while breathing it. 

The very evident intention of this peculiarly 
specific statement of God's word is to inform us, 
and so forewarn us that we may protect ourselves 
against any delusion such as those cunningly de- 
vised fables of heathen origin, which teach that 
life in the human being, as used in the Scriptures, 
is of a different nature and from a source different 
from life in other living creatures in the earth. 

And when the atmospheric air, which is the breath 



Constitution of Man 13 

of all living things, entered through his nostrils, 
''Man became a living soul." 

The words "living soul" in the English version, 
stand for the Hebrew words nephesh khay-yah, 
which, in Gen. 1:20, are translated ''creature that 
hath life," and in verses 21 and 24 are rendered 
"living creature," and in verse 30 "wherein is life." 

In each of these cases in chapter 1, the things 
spoken of are reptiles, fishes, birds and beasts. 
They are all nephesh khay-yah, that is "living souls," 
and man became "a living soul" when the breath 
of lives entered through his nostrils. 

So far then, as to his corporeal organism and 
power of living, simply as a living being, man is not 
shown, in the Divine record, to be different from all 
other animals. The material composition is alike 
in man and the higher orders of beasts; the appe- 
tites, sexual relations and laws of reproduction are 
also substantially alike. Is there then no difference ? 
Is man only an animal? 

Of all reptiles, fishes, birds and beasts, it is said 
they were made "after their kind," which, unques- 
tionably means that each was a race of living 
beings (living souls), to itself, not being made in 
the image and likeness of any already existing 
living beings in heaven or in earth. But of man it is 
written, "God said. Let us make man in our image, 
after our likeness; and let them have dominion 
' over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, 
and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over 
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 



14 The Eternal Purpose 

So God created man in his own image, in the image 
of God created He him." Gen. 1 :26, 27. 

Evidently, then, man is not simply and only an 
animaL There is a component in his constitution 
which belongs not to the reptiles, fishes, birds and 
beasts. He is made in the image and likeness of 
God, and that is what differentiates him from 
other animals. What, then, is that image ? Is it 

the; mind^ 

It is difficult to draw a line between the physical 
and mental in the animal organism. It would be 
impossible to show that even the very lowest order 
of animal life is totally void of mentality; indeed, 
such is altogether improbable; while the higher 
orders of animals exhibit such actions that in them 
mental powers are unquestionable. 

Indeed there seems to be but a step between the 
mental ability of some individuals of the higher 
orders of brutes and some of the lowest grades of 
humanity. 

Mentality in the higher orders of animal life, 
both brute and human, depends upon the confor- 
mation and the relative size and weight of the brain 
together with the strength of flow of vital fluids in 
the animal system. A relatively large and well- 
formed brain is an evidence of mental capacity, 
which, if accompanied by a strong circulation of' 
healthy blood, makes the individual a powerful 
thinker. Conversely, a relatively small or ill-shaped 



Constitution of Man 15 

brain, with weak circulation, is the sure emblem 
of feeble mentality. 

These are facts so well established as to be 
beyond controversy. To state the matter briefly, 
but correctly — That there may be thought depends 
upon the existence and right condition of thought- 
making organs. In other words, there can be no 
no thought without the physical organs of thought, 
in man or beast, just as in mechanics, there can be 
no fabric without implements. 

The fact that mankind so far outreach all other 
species of animal beings in mentality that there is 
hardly room for comparison, does not, of itself, 
prove that man is anything more than an animal. 
It proves only the superiority of his physical organs 
of thought. 

To carry this analysis further, the five senses, 
hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling, belong to 
the higher orders of brutes, in common with man. 
Some of the senses are more acute in beasts than 
in man generally. Of the emotions also, the so- 
called dumb animals very plainly manifest joy, 
grief, anger, fear and affection. Friendships are 
very frequently observed between two or more 
beasts; and, on the other hand, bitter aversions are 
sometimes manifested by brutes, one to the other. 

So far then may be seen things, both physical 
and mental, that are common to * 'living souls," 
or soul beings, both brute and human. 

The perfection of mentality is the attribute of 
God only. But in varying degrees, as we have seen, 
mentality is the attribute of all the higher orders 



16 The Eternal Purpose 

of animals. And though its highest development 
in man is so immeasurably beyond that in any other 
living souls, that in comparison, man may be called 
Godlike ; yet, because it is an attribute of all, it can 
not, therefore, be that which wholly differentiates 
man from all other earthly creatures. 

But that there is a line of clear demarkation, is 
the positive affirmation both of the Holy Scriptures 
and of natural science. There is something in the 
constitution of man, called "The image and likeness 
of God" which is wholly wanting in all other animals. 

The thing is mystery unless the testimony of 
the Creator Himself will uncover it. And may not 
the words, '%et him have dominion" be a key for 
that revelation ? 

Dominion is the prerogative of the Creator. It 
is founded upon the absolute perfection of the divine 
attributes — knowledge, understanding, wisdom, jus- 
tice, goodness, truth, holiness, power. And these 
attributes constitute rightness ; for it is unthinkable 
and impossible that such a combination could do 
other than right, and the sum of their action is love. 

And that dominion which is without bounds 
and without end is Rightness which works by love, 
and receives in return, that submission of dependent 
ones, which is the response of love requited. 

It is manifest that thCvSe attributes of the Creator, 
which are perfect and without limit in Him, and 
which constitute Him, the Eternal Sovereign, 
exist also in man, but only in a limited measure. 

The capability of one person to understand 
another depends upon the likeness of their qualities. 



Constitution of Man 17 

An artist might be enraptured while studying a 
work of high art, the production of a master; but 
his rapture would be incomprehensible to a person 
who had neither artistic talent nor culture; but 
another artist could understand. And this explains 
what the apostle John said, "It doth not yet appear 
what we shall be ; but when He shall appear, we shall 
be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." That 
is the statement of a fundamental truth ; it is because 
we shall be like Him that we shall be able to see 
Him as He is. **But God is Spirit." He is not **a 
living soul," not an animal being. Therefore the 
image and likeness of Him must be 

SPIRITUAL. 

As the image and likeness is not the same as the 
original, but is like the original, so humanity is not 
spirit, but is spiritual ; having something in common 
with the spirit being — God: and it is Spirituality 
which wholly differentiates humanity from all other 
living souls. 

We know that we are spiritual in our constitution, 
for we can apprehend, and to a large extent com- 
prehend, those qualities which are revealed to us 
as the attributes of Jehovah. 

All things which the animal senses can apprehend 
are material; they are some form of matter. We 
know that birds sing and that the waves of the sea 
roar, for we can hear them; we know that the 
meadows are covered with grass, and the mountains 
are craggy with rocks, for we can see them ; we know 



18 The Eternal Purpose 

that flowers are fragrant, for we can smell them; 
we know that honey is sweet, and vinegar is sour, 
for we can taste them ; we know that the summer air 
is warm and the winter winds are cold, for we can 
feel them. But justice, goodness, truth, holiness, 
wisdom are not material substances. They are 
thought entities; they are abstract ideas. One can 
not see them with the eye, hear them with the ear, 
touch them with the hand, taste them with the 
tongue, nor smell them. They enter the mind as 
conceptions, upon avenues of their own, which we 
may call the Spiritual Senses, And into the mind 
of any living being, that is void of spiritual senses, 
no conception of Jehovah can enter. 

Like the animal or soulical senses, the spiritual 
senses may be improved or enfeebled. The Indian 
of the American forest can easily and rapidly 
follow a trail, seeing plainly, foot marks where the 
white man can see nothing at all. Why? Because 
his power of vision is so trained and developed to 
notice minutely every mark left on grass and 
ground; while the white man's eye, not having been 
so used and developed, is almost useless as a bearer 
of such things to the mind. And as the vision so 
also each and all of the animal senses may be im- 
proved or weakened. 

Just so the spiritual senses by which is the dis- 
cernment of justice, truth, purity, holiness, if but 
little used, remain undeveloped and feeble: and 
may be unused until the power of cognizing the 
simplest things of God, is almost gone. This is seen 
in some of the lowest grades of savages, as those of 



Constitution of Man 19 

Australia, and largely so in many individual cases 
of civilized and cultivated men and women, who 
have so turned from the consideration of spiritual 
things, giving themselves up to the pleasures of the 
world or the cares of life and the accumulation of 
wealth; cultivating thereby the animal faculties, 
and disusing the spiritual faculties until the latter 
are quite dormant and of little use. 

Such persons, sometimes, and indeed, generally, 
may be terrorized by imaginary pictures of a mater- 
ial burning hell-fire ; or on the other hand enthused 
wdth purely sensuous ideas of "heaven;" for they 
can comprehend little unless sensuous. But they 
can not apprehend the character of God, nor dis- 
cern the great salvation that is in Christ Jesus, 
through a faith that works by love ; for these things 
are spiritual. And so it is written, "The natural 
(soulical or animal) man receiveth not the things 
of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto 
him, neither can he know them, because they are 
spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual 
discemeth all things." 1 Cor. 2:14, 15. 

Thus we see the human constitution is in three 
parts — animal, mental, spiritual. And it is as if the 
mind was being pressed on one side by the animal 
and on the other by the spiritual, as rival suitors; 
each pleading for ascendency over the thoughts, 
and each pressing its claim for control of the will. 
The one urgently insists on the gratification of the 
appetites of the flesh and of the animal desires. 
It allures with things pretty and ostentatious; the 
pride of the eye, the praises of men, the honors and 



20 The Eternal Purpose 

emoluments of the world, and all things sensuous 
and sensual. 

The other pleads that the mind may submit to 
be led and controlled by ''whatsoever things are 
true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, what- 
soever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of 
good report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be 
any praise, think on these things." Phil. 4:8. 

Neither the soulical nor spiritual faculties can be 
destroyed or annihilated out of the human consti- 
tution ; that can not be changed until death ; but 
the efforts of either one to gain control of the mind 
may be greatly weakened and quite suppressed by 
the long continued supremacy of the other. 

When the soulical is paramount, the spiritual 
is nearly smothered, and the ways of God are not 
desired ; but when the spiritual has nearly attained 
the ascendency, though not quite, the struggle of 
the flesh to regain the lost control is fierce. The 
Apostle Paul has well described the condition when 
the spiritual has arisen to the philosophical point 
and is resolved to be pure and good ; but the soulical 
(carnal-animal), is not yet suppressed. He says, 
*'The law is spiritual ; but I am carnal, sold under sin. 
For that which I do I allow not; for what I would, 
that I do not ; but what I hate, that I do. If then 
I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law, 
that it is good. Then it is no more I that do it, but 
sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me 
(that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing; to 
will is present with me; but how to perform that 



Constitution of Man 21 

which is good, I find not. For the good that I 
would I do not; but the evil which I would not, 
that I do * * * I find then a law that, when I would 
do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in 
the law of God after the inward man; but I see 
another lav/ in my members warring against the 
law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to 
the law of sin which is in my members." Rom. 7 :14- 
23. 

That description is of a man struggling as a 
philosopher. He has developed the spiritual and 
weakened the animal as best he could, but he can 
get no further in his own strength; yet when he 
comes unto God, in the name of Christ Jesus, 
asking divine help, then the dominion and power of 
the soulical or animal over the mind is not only 
weakened but is destroyed, the animal nature is 
suppressed, kept under, while the spiritual nature 
leads the mind "in paths of righteousness," and 
then the man, "Being made free from sin, becomes 
the servant of righteousness." Rom. 6:18. 

It is plain then that our spiritual faculties, as 
well as our soulical faculties, are subject to increase 
or decrease of power over the mind according to the 
use or disuse, abuse or cultivation, which we our- 
selves make of them. 

It is correct to say, "We ourselves," for the 
attributes of God in man constitute him a living 
being that, like God, must of necessity be absolutely 
free and self-acting. Because wisdom, goodness, 
truth, justice, holiness, cease to be such in a man, if 
his actions are under the control of any other person 



22 The Eternal Purpose 

(human or Divine), than that man himself, acting 
on what knowledge of the truth he may have, 
according to his own understanding and judgment 
and the choice of his own heart. 

Is it not then plain that the Creator, having 
made man in his own image and likeness, that is, 
having made a living being with a mental and 
spiritual constitution like His own, it would be 
impossible for even God Himself to control that 
being by absolute power, without his consent or 
even by an influence, that from any reason whatever, 
would be, to that man, irresistible, without thereby 
trampling upon, and ultimately destroying the very 
image and likeness of Himself in that being. 

That God is absolute in His right and power, 
to do as He pleases; whether to create and sustain, 
or to destroy, can not be questioned ; but He can not 
both sustain and destroy the same thing at the 
same time. Therefore He can not sustain His own 
image and likeness in man and at the same time 
by act of His power, or by an irresistible influence, 
override a man's will and make it practically impos- 
sible for that man to do just as he would please, 
whether in accordance with the Divine will or 
against it. 

And this is the manifest answer to the often 
asked question, "Why did the good Creator permit 
evil in the world?" Very plainly, he could not 
prevent it and at the same time continue to sustain 
a living being in His own image and likeness, by which 
that being was constitutionally free to do right or to 
do wrong, as he would choose. 



Constitution of Man 23 

The Scriptures, however, assure us that all was 
foreknown unto the Creator, and that he provided 
a plan ''from the foundation of the world,'' whereby 
any evils that would arise from man's constitution 
of perfect freedom would be overcome, within a 
period of time satisfactory to Himself. 

AH that has been learned from both nature and 
Revelation has brought about the universal con- 
viction that spiritual development, or character 
building, is in a man's own hands. The correct 
model being given and sufficient instruction im- 
parted by the Creator, at the right time, each one 
then must work out and shape his own character. 

The Creator Himself, as manifested in Christ 
Jesus, is the Alpha, the model on which man is 
planned and begun, by the Divine hand. He also is 
the Omega, the model to which man may finish 
himself. 

Such is the standpoint from which the Bible 
invites us to look upon the vicissitudes of human 
life and the confused condition of the human race, 
and judge of the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. 



24 The Eternal Purpose 



CHAPTER III. 

OUT WORKINGS OI^ THE IMAGK AND LIKENESS OI^ GOD, 
IN THE FLESH, WHILE YET IGNORANT OF 
GOOD AND EVIL. 

''And the Lord God took the man and put him 
into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. 
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 
Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, 
but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou 
shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest 
thereof, thou shalt surely die." Gen. 2:15-17. 

There can be no doubt that the man's whole 
organism, physical, mental and spiritual, was perfect. 
For the Creator had said of it, as of everything He 
had made, ''It was very good." That is, it was 
just right for its purpose. 

The man's intellectual and spiritual faculties 
were the image and likeness of the Creator : but they 
were not yet developed by experience. 

Nothing is more certain than the assurance 
given in the text that Adam did not know either 
good or evil. Being in the garden especially fin- 
ished up by the skill and goodness of God for his 
home ; with a wife by his side whose beauty was the 
work of the Divine artist, every craving of his nature 
was within his reach; he was in possession of the 
sum of all that was good in the earth; but he did 



Man Ignorant of Right and Wrong 25 

not know it. Evidently he knew about God, to the 
extent at least, of ''His power and Godhead," but 
that ''God is good," Adam did not know. He had 
no knowledge of evil by experience, and none by 
observation, that he knew was evil. 

It should not be said that Adam was a "grown- 
up babe," as some have thought of him; for his 
organism having been completed by the hand of 
God, his faculties were doubtless capable and ready 
to rightly perform their several functions with the 
power of adult manhood, whenever occasion might 
call for their exercise. He evidently knew that 
God was his Creator, and his spiritual faculties 
could not and did not fail to assure him that it was 
his duty to observe the Creator's will; hence Paul 
says, "The man was not deceived." 

But the God-like constitution of man, if uncon- 
trolled by knowledge, understanding and love, must 
and always would assert its self-willedness. And 
the designating of a certain fruit, that it should not 
be eaten, seems to have been the plan of God, in His 
wisdom and goodness to at once raise the issue, 
which sooner or later was inevitable, and settle the 
case with Adam and Eve alone, and before they 
had offspring; that from the first they might know 
the consequences of sin and be able to teach their 
children the fear of the Lord. 

The forbidden tree was called "the tree of the 
knowledge of good and evil." That is, to eat of it 
would be doing what God had specially told them 
not to do; to do it, therefore, would be evil — sin. 
Then they would receive the consequence, and learn 



26 The Eternal Purpose 

by experience what evil is; and then, by contrast 
with their former experience in Eden, they would 
know that what they had lost w^as good. 

That disobedience was the open gate to the 
highway of the knowledge and understanding of 
both good and evil: a highway that every living 
soul made in his image and likeness, because it is 
self-willed, will traverse before it will come to know 
and understand God. 

It may be well for us at this point to observe, 
briefly, that the whole story of the creation of 
*'the heavens and the earth and all that in them is," 
of man in Eden, his sin and its penalty, is straight 
narrative; having nothing of the allegorical about 
it. Not recited in the minutely explanatory style 
of human invention, but pronounced in brief maj- 
esty — the style of Almighty God. 

The garden of Eden was a material fact, and 
the channels of the yet flowing rivers, Euphrates 
and Tigris, are the abiding witnesses to its geo- 
graphical location at this day. Adam and Eve 
were a fact, and their sin was a fact, and the penalty 
was a fact, testified at this day by the graves of the 
human race. If the penalty was allegorized, if 
the words by which it was declared were figurative 
in meaning, then may the sin, and the sinners and 
the tempter, and the Creator, all the parties and 
the place in the narrative be together swept into the 
waste basket of allegory. 

However, it is fashionable in ecclesiastical lore 
to allow the whole story of Eden as simple fact, 
excepting the penalty to sin. This is commonly 



Man Ignorant of Right and Wrong 27 

allegorized, and stated in about this way: **The 
saying, Thou shalt die, did not refer to the physical 
nature, but to the spiritual nature, and it meant 
merely that the sinner should be cut off from 
the communion and the friendship of God in this 
life; and unless they should repent, they would, 
in the life to come, be cast into everlasting torment, 
living, but with the agonizing consciousness that 
they were eternally cut off from God, and from all 
good and from hope." 

Consider now what such a theory leads to. If 
death means only being cut off from the presence 
and favor of God, but continuing to be alive, then, 
per contra, life means only enjoying that presence 
and favor ; nothing more ; and does not at all signify 
conscious existence. 

Let us suppose a case and see about this. There 
was another tree in the garden, called the tree of 
life, to its fruit, before they sinned, Adam and Eve 
had free access; it was among the things given to 
them. But after they had sinned, ''The Lord God 
said, The man has become as one of us, to know 
good and evil; and now lest he put forth his hand 
and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live 
forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth 
from the garden of Eden to till the ground from 
which he was taken. So he drove out the man; 
and he placed cherubim and a flaming sword, which 
turned every^ way to keep the way of the tree of life." 

Now, if to die means only a cutting off from 
Divine favor and communion, had the man gotten 
some of the fruit of the tree of life before he was 



"28 The Eternal Purpose 

driven out of the garden of Eden, he would have 
**Hved forever/' that is, he would have recovered the 
Divine favor and communion, without faith, without 
repentance and without love. And the sentence of 
the Creator would have been thwarted and made 
of no effect, though the sinner was still a sinner. 
Is it not then too sickly a theory? And, besides, 
if it could be true, it would utterly overthrow the 
plan of salvation through Christ Jesus as set forth 
in the law of Moses and the prophets and the New 
Testament. 

The penalty, by the rendering in the common 
version, was, *'In the day thou eatest thereof, thou 
shalt surely die." The marginal reading ''Dying 
thou shalt die." Tregelles renders it, "To die thou 
shalt die." This last is exactly literal, and the 
meaning plainly is that in the day they ate of the 
forbidden fruit, they would begin to die, and would 
keep on dying until they were dead, and so return 
to the dust of the ground whence they were taken. 

For about nine hundred years, Adam walked 
''in the valley of the shadow of death," during which 
time he ate his bread by the sweat of his face, begat 
sons and daughters and finally died. 

Adam was created mortal ; he was "a living soul," 
and all reptiles, fishes, birds and beasts were "living 
souls." They all were subject to death. And 
there can be no reason to doubt when God told 
Adam he should die, if he ate the forbidden fruit, 
that Adam perfectly understood what death was; 
for animal death was all around him, and our 
sense of right and justice would not allow any 



Man Ignorant of Right and Wrong 29 

living being to be put under a penalty of the nature 
of which he knew nothing. And if our morals, 
which are but in His image and likeness forbid, 
how much more He who is infinite in justice. 

The bacteria of death were diffused in the air 
and the water and the food, then as now. Their 
action then was the same as now. There is no testi- 
mony nor evidence that any laws relating to life and 
death have been changed. The death -working germs 
are right about and within us now ; but they can only 
take hold and do their work under certain conditions 
of our system. The same was true then. If now, 
some antidote to every disease producing bacillus 
could be obtained, there could be no sickness to 
those who would avail themselves of the antidote. 
Such an antidote did exist in the garden of Eden. 
It was called "the tree of life." And while man had 
access to it, he could constantly renew his life and 
live on and on ; but when cut off from it, the germs 
of disease where free to do their work on him, as on 
all other animal life, and he began to die; though 
the vigor of his organism, fresh from the hand of 
God, withstood the attacks for nearly a thousand 
years. 

Cutting off from access to the tree of life was 
therefore, necessarily a part of the sentence, "Thou 
shaltdie." 

Eden was "the garden of God." It was the 
perfection of a home for a being in the image and 
likeness of God, so long as he was sinless, immacu- 
late. But it could not remain so with a sinner in 
charge of it. In his wantonness he would inevi- 



30 The Eternal Purpose 

tably outrage the perfection of beauty and goodness: 
Being cast out of the garden, Adam and Eve 
were forced to toil or starve, in the comparatively 
barren parts of the earth; to provide their own 
shelter from the burning sun, the chilling wind and 
rain; to lie down at night aching with the fatigue 
of the day's toil; to awaken in the morning to find 
their planted fields overrun by wild beasts, their 
crops trampled into the ground ; all they had planted 
withering in the drouth ; their gathered grain wet 
and rotting in the too abundant rains; the weeds 
outgrowing and choking their vegetables ; their flocks 
destroyed by carnivorous beasts and dying of dis- 
ease. Such evils as these, unquestionably, were 
the vexations and disappointments that harassed 
those two first sinners, as to-day they harass us. 

And how did they receive these things? In 
what temper of mind did they endure these afflic- 
tions? Let it not be said **It's no matter." It 
does matter greatly. And if we have the right 
answer, it straightens for us that theological tangle 
called ''Total depravity'' and ''Original sin." 

There was no difference in the human nature of 
Adam and Eve and our own. What gratifies 
human nature now, gratified them. What grieves 
human nature now, grieved them; what vexes 
human nature now, vexed them. We are talking 
about human nature, not about that exalted charac- 
ter which may be acquired through knowledge, 
understanding, faith and love; and is attained 
in fact, by only a very few, most devoted and 
experienced followers of Jesus. 



Man Ignorant of Right and Wrong 31 

We must remember that they had their first 
conception of good and evil after they had sinned 
and that then it was only a mere conception of an 
idea, at most. They could not yet comprehend the 
enormity of sin in its immeasureable dread fulness, 
because of its far reaching effects; which could, 
at that time be seen only from the standpoint of the 
omniscent God who is perfect in holiness. 

It is a well-know^n law of our constitution, that 
when love reigns in the heart, punishment may 
be meekly endured, if at the same time its justice 
is clearly seen by the sufferer; but where love and 
a clear perception of its justice is lacking, as in the 
case of Adam and Eve, punishment always pro- 
duces resentment and wrath. 

The sufferings that followed their sin was, to 
their minds, only punishment inflicted according 
to the humor of God. They had yet to learn 
through suffering that sin generates its own con- 
sequences. 

It is doubtless the common idea that Adam and 
Eve, meekly, and with tears of penitence only, met 
and endured the hardships of their cast-out con- 
dition. But human nature denies it ; more correctly 
shall we think of Adam, at least during the earlier 
years of his sad experience, giving occasional vent 
to pent up wrath: cursing the drouth and curs- 
ing the flood ; flinging stones at obtruding animals 
with vengeful intentions, and stamping the earth 
with impotent rage. Eve, too, after the manner of 
woman, weeping; may be tearing her hair in the 
despair of repeated disappointments; and anon, 



32 The Eternal Purpose 

trying to cheer her husband with words of hope that 
the end of suffering would come and they would be 
taken back to their loved Eden. 

Did they then have hope? Yes, well founded 
hope ; for had not God promised them a deliverer ? 
He had said to the serpent, the instigator of their 
disobedience, in their presence and in their hearing, 
*'I will put enmity between thee and the woman 
and between thy seed and her seed. He shall 
bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise His heel." 
Is it then too great a stretch of imagination to 
think that in their conversations while they talked 
over their troubles, there was mingled a glimmering 
hope of deliverance? Did they not long for and 
perhaps pray that He who should bruise the ser- 
pent's head might quickly come? 

It is written, "And Adam knew Eve, his wife and 
she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten 
a man from the Lord.'' At last then, they thought 
they had Him. A seed of the woman was born. 
Was not this the promised deliverer? They were 
in a measure comforted. But they had yet to 
learn that a man begotten in sin and brought forth 
in iniquity could not be the deliverer from the Lord. 
And further, they must learn through tears and 
wailing over the grave, and with long days of 
mourning for a murdered son, that sin transmits 
its direful effects to the offspring. 

In Cain we see unmistakably, the turmoil of 
passions, the fermentings of wrath and vengeance 
that rankled in his parents before he was born. 

By the law of heredity, as is now well known, 



Man Ignorant of Right and Wrong 33 

the most marked mental features of the oflfspring 
are the result of pre-natal conditions and are reliable 
and truthful witnesses of the ruling tendencies and 
special excitements of the parents' minds, before the 
child was born. 

Cain was not humble and religious and gentle; 
but hot tempered, violent and revengeful; a dis- 
position which under excitement is very liable to 
commit murder. But his advent as a babe evidently 
effected a change in the tide of Adam and Eve's 
feelings, quickening hope, assuaging anger, devel- 
oping patient endurance and even kindling the 
spirit of worship and thankfulness. 

While under the mollifying influence of hope 
made alive by the coming of the first bom babe, 
Adam and Eve had another son, and again we see 
the working of heredity. For righteousness, though 
perchance less prepotent in the flesh than sin, 
yet infuses a measure of its beauty and sweetness 
into the traits of the offspring. 

Abel was the child of restful hope. He was 
gentle, patient, worshipful. Not, indeed, that he 
was without personal sins, during his comparatively 
short life; his bringing a sin-offering before the Lord 
is evidence that he was conscious of transgression ; 
but the predominant features of his inherited mental 
make-up leaned toward righteousness: while the 
predominant features of Cain's inherited form 
leaned toward violence. 

But Cain was not totally void of those elements 
which make for righteousness, (as is witnessed by 



34 The Eternal Purpose 

the thank-offering, "fruit of the field"), which he 
brought before the Lord. 

Such has been the inheritance of all generations : 
and it is ours. But it has ever been true that the 
seed of the righteous is blessed, and the seed of the 
wicked is cursed: each individually blessed or 
cursed in the possession of its own predominating 
inheritance. 

Surely sin becomes dreadful and more dreadful, 
as its far-reaching power is opened to our view. 

When Adam begat a child, it was in his own 
likeness, tainted by the consequences of sin which 
had more or less injured every function of his organ- 
ism. It was absolutely impossible for him to beget 
an untainted offspring. Nothing could come from 
his loins that did not carry some marks, some special 
misshaping of the faculties, which were the result 
of his sins, and which, at the same time, predisposed 
the offspring to the same line of evil conduct. 

Well may Paul say, "By one man's disobedience 
the multitude were made sinners." Rom. 5:19. 

Sin is not an ethereal, intangible conception of 
the mind. It is the resultant, the action of a thought. 
It imbeds itself in the human organism as a material 
fact: it graves itself in the lineaments of the face: 
it declares itself in the foosteps: it glimmers in the 
eye and flows in the blood from sire to son, as is 
clearly evinced by the laws of heredity. To the 
keen vision of an experienced detective, the criminal 
carries the proclamation of his character in his 
countenance and in his walk. 



Man Ignorant of Right and Wrong 35 

Nor will the effects of sin be wholly eradicated 
from the organism of the flesh. A good ancestry 
of many generations serves only to prove that 
though there may be a diminution of virulence, 
the inbred effects of sin can not be rooted out by a 
long line of spiritually righteous progenitors. Water 
that is poisoned is not made pure by the addition 
of pure water ; the poison may be attenuated, but it 
is there. God may forgive the sinner, but forgive- 
ness does not remove the effects of sin from the 
fleshly organism of the one who is pardoned. 

The Almighty has another plan for the accom- 
plishment of a complete purification, the utter 
removal of the taints of sin from the organic being 
of such as shall become worthy. He will let death 
finish its work in every one bom of the flesh, and 
afterward, in his appointed time, He will raise up 
a new organism, a spiritual, created anew in the 
image and likeness of God; not, indeed,'' a living 
soul" or flesh and blood being; but like God, a 
spirit being, free from the taints of sin. And be- 
cause perfected in knowledge and understanding 
and love, through experiences of life w^hile in the 
flesh, will not be defiled forever and ever. 

**When we shall see Him we shall be like Him." 



36 The Eternal Purpose 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE DISPENSATlONAIy AGES. 

In scanning the Bible the most obvious of all 
things are the sharp lines which divide the records 
into dispensational ages. 

Noah and the flood mark the first division. 
Time from Adam down to Noah has been called 
the Antediluvian age. From the flood to the 
death of Jacob, the second clearly marked change 
of dispensation has been commonly called the 
Patriarchal age. From the death of Jacob to the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ has been called the 
Mosaic age or the age of the law. From the resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ to the present time has 
been commonly called the Gospel age. 

These four dispensational ages are clearly marked 
by very manifest changes of divine dispensation, 
or methods of management, which the Lord has 
adopted in respect to man. They are so plainly 
manifest that the most casual observer can not 
but see them, and among Bible students there is 
but little disagreement concerning them. 

Another age, with a dispensation greatly changed 
from any preceding, seems to be clearly pointed 
out and described by Moses and the Prophets in 
the Old Testament, and by Jesus and the apostles 
in the New Testament. It is immediately to follow 



Antediluvian Dispensation 37 

the Gospel age ; and in the Bible is called ''The King- 
dom of God." It is that for which Jesus taught his 
disciples to pray, saying, ''Thy Kingdom come, 
Thy will be done iv the earth as in heaven." And 
it is commonly referred to in modem times as the 
Millennium. 

With the description of the Kingdom age, 
or the dispensation of the reign of Christ in the 
earth, revelation ceases; so that it is impossible to 
know anything further; but there are suggestions 
in the Scriptures of many ages to follow. 

A clear discernment of what is by some called 
dispensatiofial truth, is absolutely essential as the 
first step to a right knowledge and understanding 
of the Holy Scriptures. Without it doctrines 
become mixed and confusion is inevitable. 

By dispensational truth is meant those things 
which are right to do in one dispensation and not 
right to do in another. For instance, in the Mosaic 
age, for the purpose of illustrating the exact justice 
of God, and that eternal law that, "Whatsoever a 
man soweth, that shall he also reap," it was "An 
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," but in the 
gospel age, it is, "Avenge not yourselves." In 
the Mosaic age, no Israelite had any authority, 
nor indeed any right, to go out trying to convert 
the heathen to that which he was bound to believe 
and conform to. But in the Gospel age the com- 
mandment laid upon every disciple of Jesus is, 
"Go, make disciples of all nations." 

Let us then study these several dispensational 
ages, noticing the patent facts set forth in each, 



38 The Eternal Purpose 

that we may see what we can of **The present truth" 
of each period. Then having gone over all, we 
can, by the brighter light of the gospel shining 
back on the past ages, see more clearly many things 
which, without that light, are hidden though they 
are of great importance to the disciple of Jesus, 
who would be thoroughly prepared for every good 
work. 

rim ANTODII^UVIAN DISPENSATION. 

A very brief but marvelously comprehensive 
history is given of the antediluvian age. Beginning 
with the origin of the human race, it gives the 
particulars of the creation of the first man and of 
the first woman; and affirms that that woman 
was ^*The mother of all living.^' Gen. 3:20; Acts. 
17:26. 

The story of Adam and Eve is so told that 
it is impossible to get any other idea from reading 
it, than that they only were the first parents of 
the human race. 

Nevertheless, ingenious men, have found delight 
in proving to their own satisfaction that mankind 
existed on the earth before the Bible story begins. 

That doctrine is called pre-adam-ite-ism ; and 
one of its strong arguments is ''If there were no 
people on the earth but Adam's family, where did 
Cain and his brothers get their wives; and where 
did Adam's daughters get their husbands?" Now 
if what was afterward the Mosaic law had been 
in force at that time, that would indeed be a serious 



Antediluvian Dispensation 39 

question, but it was not: and more than two thou- 
sand years after Cain took a wife, Abram took a 
wife, and she ivas his sister^ the daughter of his 
own father. Gen. 20:12. 

Great horror is affected by those advocating 
the preadamite notion, at the idea that Cain took 
one of his own sisters for a wife, and that all of 
Adam's sons and daughters did likewise. ''Hor- 
rible incest." But there was no incest where there 
was no law on that subject for several hundred years 
after Abram took his sister for a wife. 

Another stunning question is, **How could Cain 
have built a city, Gen. 4 :17, if he had no inhabitants 
for it, but his own little family?" Well, may be 
his family was not very little. The time of his 
building the city, which he named after one of 
his sons, is not told. It therefore would be a silly 
assumption to say that it was immediately after 
he came to the age of manhood and took a wife. 

Men lived in those days to great age, eight or 
nine hundred years, and from the story as it is 
told, it seems evident that when Cain killed Abel, 
he was then more than one hundred years old; 
for that seems to have occurred shortly before the 
birth of Seth. Abel was nearly as old as Cain, 
and it is very probable that both, at that time, 
had large families, with grown up sons and daughters 
who also had large families, children and grand 
children. 

The increase of progeny, when parents lived 
to such great age, continuing vigorous, and begett- 
ing sons and daughters, as was the case in those 



40 The Eternal Purpose 

times, would be very rapid. If a man should take 
a wife when he was about twenty-five years of 
age, and have a child every two years, and his 
children should marry at an average age of twenty- 
five years, and likewise have children about every 
two years and his grand children the same, in one 
hundred years that fam.ily would number several 
hundred souls. It is probable that Cain was several 
hundred years old when he built that city, or 
settled a colony; and his family probably had 
several thousand members. And while we are on 
the subject of the increase of progeny, Charles 
Darwin, the great naturalist, says, ''The elephant 
is reckoned the slowest breeder of all known animals, 
and I have taken some pains to estimate the pro- 
bable minimum rate of natural increase; it will 
be safest to assume that it begins breeding when 
thirty years old, and goes on breeding until ninety 
years old, bring forth six young in the interval 
and surviving until one hundred years old; if 
this be so, after a period of seven hundred and 
forty to seven hundred and fifty years, there would 
be alive nearly nineteen m.illion elephants descended 
from the first pair. ''Origin of Species" P. 72. 

Such an estimate of increase, applied to the 
human race, would surely be a minimum, when 
the parents lived to be eight or nine hundred 
years old, in vigorous health. 

It is thought by some that the names Adam, 
Seth, Enos, Cainan, Llahalaleel, Jared, Enoch 
Methuselah and Lam.ech, did not mean actual, 
individual men, because tliey lived too long; that 



Antediluvian Dispensation 41 

they must have meant an aggregation of men, 
some kind of a society or a ''Church," as some say, 
or a tribe or a dynasty which began and ended in 
the time attributed as the Hfetime or each of those 
names. 

But it is plain that the same theories which 
would apply to show that all these names back 
to Adam were not individual men, but some kind 
of aggregation of men, would equally apply to 
Noah, who is said to have lived longer than any 
of them excepting only Jared and Methuselah. 
But Noah is called a man. Gen. 6 :9 ; Ezek. 14 :14, 20. 
And he is mentioned and classed with Job and 
Daniel. The apostle Peter speaks of the Ark of 
Noah, "Wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved 
by water." Now nobody denies that souls means 
individual persons, and Noah was one of the eight. 
In the epistle to the Hebrews, Chapter 11:7, it 
is written, ''By faith, Noah being warned of God 
of things not yet seen, moved with fear, prepared 
an ark to the saving of his house (family) by the 
which he condemned the world and became heir 
of the righteousness which is by faith." Now, 
if all that is said about Noah does not mean an 
individual man, then there is no historical value 
to any thing that is written in the Bible, and the 
book is utterly worthless for the instruction of 
honest men. But if Noah was a man, then Lamech 
v;as a man, for he was the father of Noah, and so 
on back to Adam; and the whole story is straight 
history and not an allegory. 



42 The Eternal Purpose 



NO HUMAN GOVERNMENT. 

The commission to ''Have dominion over the 
fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and 
over the cattle and over all the earth, and over 
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth," 
given by the Creator to man, did not include his 
fellow man. Being made in the image and likeness 
of God, every man was constitutionally his own ruler, 
and by that same constitution he was not to rule 
another man, nor be ruled by another, in that 
sense in which he ruled over the earth and every 
living thing that creepeth upon the earth. 

Government by man over man is prima- 
facie evidence that there is wickedness somewhere. 
When the Lord said to the woman, respecting 
the man, *'He sha.ll rule over thee," (Gen. 3:6,) 
it was not a special punishment which the Lord, 
invented and imposed on her; but it was a state- 
ment to her of the effect which sin would bring 
about, that the man, being the stronger, would take 
advantage of his superior powers and would domi- 
neer over her; not by right, but because he could. 

Where there is no sin there can be no such thing. 
Therefore when God turned man loose in the earth, 
He gave him no human form of government. 
It was necessary, also, that it should be so, in 
order that the world should have an example 
of what sin does when men give place to it in their 
hearts, and it is not restrained by a very present 
force that is visible and tangible. 



Antediluvian Dispensation 43 



INSTRUCTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS WAS GIVEN THEM. 

But the Creator did give sufficient instruction 
concerning the Divine will, for a man to know 
correctly how he should govern himself, and how 
he should conduct himself in respect to his fellow man 
and his Creator. 

This is first evidenced by the offerings brought 
by Cain and Abel, and presented to the Lord. 
Cain brought the fruit of the field, which is defined 
elsewhere in the Scriptures to be a thank-offering 
for temporal blessing; Abel brought of the first- 
lings of his flock with the fat thereof, which was 
both an offering for sin and a thank-offering. 
That is, it was a confession of sin, with a profes- 
sion of repentance and giving thanks for God's 
mercy. But thanks, without repentance for sin, 
can not be acceptable to God, so Cain's offering 
was rejected. 

About the time of the birth of Enos, there 
came to be a distinction made between those 
who "Called upon the name of the Lord" and 
those who did not. The great majority of men 
more and more neglected the worship of Jehovah, 
and right relations with each other, giving way 
more and more to gratifications of the flesh, fol- 
lowing the soulical and neglecting the spiritual 
parts of their constitution. 

It is evident, however, that there was much 
truth known at that time, at least concerning the 



44 The Eternal Purpose 

rewards of righteousness on the one hand and 
of wickedness on the other. 

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, was a prophet; 
and so he was a preacher of righteousness. 
He was devotedly pious, and ''walked with God 
three hundred years," and he had the evidence 
that he pleased God. He prophesied concerning 
the coming of Christ, and of the retribution of 
the wicked, saying, ''Behold, the lyord cometh 
with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judg- 
ment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly 
among them of all ungodly deeds which they 
have ungodly committed, and of all their hard 
speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against 
Him." Ju. 14:15. 

Noah was "a preacher of righteousness," 2 Pet. 
2 :5. And for one hundred years before the destruc- 
tion by the flood, he worked on his ark, and in 
the power of the spirit of Christ, he preached 
repentance. "When once the long suffering of 
God waited in the days of Noah while the Ark 
was preparing." 1 Pet. 3 :20. 

Since there were no human laws, every one 
did as he pleased, and if he killed another man, 
he was not brought to account for it, unless by 
private revenge. Gen. 4:15, 24. 

A few in that time, in whom was "the Fear 
of the Lord," withstood the flood of wickedness 
and remained true and pure, but the great mass 
of the people degenerated spiritually until "God 
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the 
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts 



Antediluvian Dispensation 45 

of his heart was only evil continually, and the 
earth was filled with violence." Gen. 6 :5, 11. 

It is probable that there were several millions 
of people in the earth at that time, and that they 
all had a chance to get a living just alike. The 
ground was not fenced in with notices posted 
here and there, ^'Trespassers not allowed here/' 
for there were no laws protecting ^'property rights.'* 
If any one was robbed of the results of his labor, 
and there was evidently much of that going on, 
all he had to do was to rob some one else, or abide 
his chance for private revenge. Anarchy, or 
the absence of organized government over ungodly 
men, was exemplified in its true and best form. 

ARTS AND SCIENCES. 

The people of the antediluvian age were not 
ignorant of those things supplied by nature which 
are most necessary to the welfare and comfort 
of human life, and which are found in every part 
of the habitable earth. It is a long way this side 
of their time that the so-called "stone age" will 
be found. The use of fire was known from the 
&st; for animal sacrifices were offered by Abel. 
And **Tubalcain, an instructor of every artificer 
in brass and iron," surely worked with fire. Jubal 
invented and manufactured both stringed and 
wind musical instruments, and Jabal made a 
business of stock raising. Cain built a city, 
but Jabal dwelt in tents, so they understood 



46 The Eternal Purpose 

erecting substantial buildings as well as temporary 
and portable tents. 

That considerable progress had been made 
in the science of astronomy, is evident; for they 
counted the days and months and years with a 
definiteness and accuracy that would have been 
impossible without such knowledge. See chapters 
5 and 7: 11,24; 8; 4, 5, 13, 14. 

They worked with copper and iron tools; 
they made wind and stringed musical instruments; 
they built houses, and as they were very long lived, 
it is probable that their houses were substantial 
buildings, and the building of that great boat, 
the ark, proves that there were competent mechanic3 
among them. 

How they learned all these things, whethei 
they studied it out by themselves, or were they 
first taught by angels, may be a question of interest. 
And another question. How come the knowledge 
of the creation of the heavens and the earth, 
and all plant and animal life, during the six creative 
days, as set forth in the first chapter of Genesis? 

THE SONS OI^ GOD. 

There is a curious story told in a very few words 
which possibly may throw some light on these 
questions; it reads, ''And it came to pass when 
men began to multiply on the face of the earth, 
and daughters were born unto them, that the sons 
of God saw the daughters of men that they were 
fair, and they took them wives of all which they 



Antediluvian Dispensation 47 

chose. And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not 
always strive with men, for that he also is flesh, 
yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 
There were giants in those days, and also, after 
that, when the sons of God came in unto the daugh- 
ters of men, and they bear children to them, the 
same became mighty men, which were of old, men 
of renown." Gen. 6:1-4. 

There seems to be three classes mentioned 
in this short story, ''Sons of God," ''giants," and 
"mighty men, which were of old, men of renown." 

The words, "Which were of old" indicate that 
the story was written a long time after the events, 
and that it had come down to the time of the writer 
as a tradition, and the whole matter seems to 
belong to the latter part of the antediluvian age. 
Nothing more is said about either class. 

Who the giants were, and what their immediate 
ancestry, is left wholly in the dark; but from the 
connecting history of the great wickedness and 
violence of those times, it seems fair to suppose 
that they might have been simply a numerous 
family of exceedingly large and strong men who, 
before shooting weapons were devised, with which 
to fight them, terribly tyrannized over others by 
brute force and violence. But another idea, 
which may be as good, or better, is that the giants 
were huge beasts, such as are now known to have 
inhabited parts of the earth, during the earliest 
periods of human existence, but are now extinct. 
Some of these were the cave-bear, cave-hyena, 
mammoth, mastodon and the giant elk. Such 



48 The Eternal Purpose 

beasts could not be restrained nor fenced out, 
and could only be extremely dangerous to man. 
It is well known that many reptiles, also, of frightful 
size were in the earth at an earlier epoch, and 
may it not be that some families of these monsters 
yet lingered, when first man was given the domi- 
nion of the earth, and were finally and utterly 
destroyed in the flood. 

In any case, the *'men of renown'' were not 
the same as the giants, as some have thought. 
Their renown seems to have been gained by some- 
thing more than physical stature and mere brute 
strength. They were the offspring of **the Sons 
of God" with the daughters of men. 

The question is, who were these **Sons of God" 
who, taking women as wives, produced a progeny 
that were "men of renown?" And what is there 
about the whole matter, any how, which makes it 
of such importance that it should be recorded 
in God's word which He caused to be written for 
the instruction of all generations to come? 

Many have been the guesses which men have 
made on this subject. 

The post-apostolic fathers, Augustine, Cyril 
and Chrysostum, thought that they must have 
been the descendants of Seth, whom these com- 
mentators assume to have been, all of them, very 
pious men, and for that reason were called *'Sons 
of God." And in lack of any definite explanation, 
many modern commentators have promulgated 
the same idea. But the question at once arises. 
How could the inter-marriage of merely pious 



Antediluvian Dispensation 49 

men with the daughters of men who made no pro- 
fession of piety so affect the offspring that they 
should be, in a remarkable degree, **Menof renown?" 
The argument at least seems fragile. 

The oldest belief on the subject, that which, 
on the best authority, seems to have been held 
by the Israelites of all times, was that they were 
angels. And it seems to be clearly proven that 
the old reading of the Septuagint was ''Angels 
of God" not ''Sons of God." Josephus, who was 
bom about the time Christ was crucified, and 
was contemporary with the apostles, speaking 
of this matter, says, "Many angels of God compa- 
nied with women and begat sons that proved 
unjust." Ant. 1:13. There is no doubt that at 
least a tradition, generally believed by the Jews, 
held that angels assumed human bodies and ap- 
peared on earth as men, and associated with the 
people for the ostensible purpose of instructing 
and reclaiming mankind from sin; but that, 
instead of reclaiming men, they fell into the snare 
of "the daughters of men" and themselves became 
sinners. 

The Hebrew text perhaps always read, "Sons 
of God," but those Jewish scholars, who, nearly 
three hundred years before Christ, rendered the 
Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek Tongue, which 
translation is called the Septuagint, understood 
the word sons, in this place, to mean angels, and 
so rendered it in the Greek translation. 

In Job. 1:6 and 2:1, this story is told, "There 
was a day when the sons of God came to present 



50 The Eternal Purpose 

themselves before the Lord. And Satan came also 
among them/' And in the thirty-eighth chapter 
the Creator, addressing Job, says, ''Where wast 
thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? 
Declare, if thou hast understanding. Who has 
laid the measure thereof, if thou knowest? or who 
has stretched the line upon it ? Whereupon are the 
foundations thereof fastened ? or who laid the corner 
stone thereof, when the morning stars sang to- 
gether and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" 

It has always been conceded by Bible students 
that Sons of God in these passages mean angels 
of God; and they are so rendered to this day, 
in the Septuagint. And if that is the true meaning 
in these texts, there is no philological reason why. 
Gen. 6:1, 4 should not also mean angels of God. 

Some have objected on the ground that angels 
are spirit beings, and that it is absurd to think 
of them as having animal passions and sexual 
appetites the same as human beings. That is 
doubtless true of them as spirit beings, but if they 
should desire to assume a human organism, and 
God should not prevent them in their desire, then 
the same organism would operate in them, in all 
respects, just as in men that are *'born of blood 
and of the will of the flesh." (Jno. 1 :13.) l^or it is 
sexual organism that generates sexual appetites. 

There can be no doubt that certain of the 
angels did commit sin, at some time. Three of 
the apostles allude to it, and Paul, addressing the 
saints, says, ''Know ye not that ye shall judge 
angels?" (1. Cor. 6:5.) Peter says, "God spared 



Antediluvian Dispensation 51 

not the angels that sinned, but cast them down 
to tartarus and deHvered them into chains of darkness 
to be reserved unto judgment" (2 Pet. 2:4.) 
And Jude says, **The angels which kept not their 
first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath 
reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, 
unto the judgement of the great day." Now 
notice the connection of the next verse, ''Even as 
Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, 
in like manner (doing the same as those angels 
did), giving themselves over to fornication and 
goi7ig after strange flesh, are set forth as an example 
suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Ju. 6:7. 

If these testimonies of the apostles have no 
basis of solid fact, but are the figments of idle 
legends, then what is there at all in their testi- 
monies on any subjects that is worthy of credence? 
And what but silliness is there in the mention 
of the "Sons of God" marrying the ''daughters of 
men" and deducing therefrom a reason for the 
unusual abilities of their offspring, if indeed those 
"Sons of God" were only men of the ordinary kind. 

All antiquity was saturated with legends of 
marriages between heavenly beings, the "gods," 
and human beings. And the offspring of such 
unions were called demigods; and they were famed 
for prodigious works and feats of valor, especially 
as in case of Hercules, in single-handed encounters 
and victories over monstrous and destructive 
beasts. 

It is probable that the Bible story of the ante- 
diluvian "Sons of God," "angels which kept not 



52 The Eternal Purpose 

their first estate, but left their own habitation/' 
and perhaps, assuming the human organism, 
marrying women and begetting a hybrid progeny 
"men of renown," is the basis of the ancient mytho- 
logical legends of the demigods. 

If the idea that the "Sons of God" were angels 
should be the truth in the matter, it must not be 
supposed that Jehovah appointed them to do 
as they did, for it was not the plan of salvation 
which He had ordained "from the foundation 
of the world." Therefore it must have been a 
scheme of their own which they undertook without 
authority. And upon that hypothesis, which is, 
according to the tradition believed by both Jews 
and Christians till long after the days of the apostles, 
there is good and sufficient reason for telling the 
story in the Word of God as will be clearly seen 
when we come to review the Bible account which 
shows the work to be done, and the actors which 
shall be engaged in that age, yet to come, God's 
appointed time, when all men of all ages and genera- 
tions shall be brought to know the real truth of 
God. 

But if the "Sons of God" were indeed angels 
who, forsaking their own laws of life and the spirit 
mode of being, taking instead the human organism, 
then the offspring they had by "the daughters of 
men" was an hybrid race, the procreation of siriy 
not a part of the creative work of God, which the 
wrath of the Almighty soon swept off the earth 
and out of existence. 

Some commentators claim that in the ninth 



Antediluvian Dispensation 53 

verse of sixth chapte: there is a plain allusion to 
the existence of an hybrid race of men, it reads: 
*'Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generation, 
and Noah walked with God." The first and the 
third clauses of this statement declare the charac- 
ter of Noah. He was just and walked with God, 
but what is the meaning of the second clause, 
**and perfect in his generation ?" 

The word generation may mean the people 
contemporary^ with a man during his lifetime; 
or it may mean his posterity or his ancestry^ and 
this last seems, from the connections, to be the 
true intention as used in this text. And its prob- 
able meaning is that Noah was perfect or pure 
in his ancestry, that he was not one of the hybrid 
race, but a pure-blooded son of Adam. 



54 The Eternal Purpose 



CHAPTER V. 

PATRIARCHAIv DISPENSATION. 

After the flood the dispensation was radically 
changed. Authority to establish human govern- 
ment for the restraint and suppression of crime 
was given to man by the Creator. 

Bear in mind now that it was only for the re- 
straint and suppression of crime, not in any measure 
to apply to those who walked in rectitude of life; 
for, ''The law is not made for a righteous man, but 
for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and 
for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of 
fathers and mothers, for manslayers." 1 Tim. 1 :9. 

The existence of human law to govern any human 
being is a public declaration that that person will 
not do right, but that he will do wrong to his fellow 
beings unless he is under compulsion. Therefore 
any law made to bear down upon any man, when 
!ie is not doing wickedness, and the effect of which 
is to restrain innocent liberty, is itself an usurpation 
and should be abolished ; for its enactment is sin. 

The authority to pass judgment, with power to 
execute the penalty, appears to have been put into 
the hands of the fathers. This would be putting 
law into the hands of the most capable for wisdom, 
justice and mercy. And it is from this fact that 



Patriarchal Dispensation 55 

this dispensation has been called the Patriarchal 
Age. Patriarch means a father that rules. 

There is more evidence that, generally, govern- 
ment was held in the hands of the oldest and most 
capable fathers of the family or tribe ; but the case of 
Terah is one easily seen. "The Lord had said unto 
Abram, Get thee out of thy country 'and from thy 
kindred and from thy father's house into a land 
that I will shew thee." But the story of the mi- 
gration is that "Terah took Abram his son, and Lot 
the son of Haran, and Sarai his daughter, his son 
Abram 's wife; and they went forth with them from 
Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan ; 
and they came unto Haran and dwelt there. And 
Terah died in Haran." Gen. 11 : 31, 32. So in place 
of Abram taking Terah his father, Terah, as a pa 
triarch determined to go and take Abram to the 
place that God would shew. But Terah died on 
the way and then Abram became patriarch. 

There can be no doubt that wise laws, enforced 
by the hands of discreet men, do very much to 
restrain the vicious; and if the administration of 
such laws could constantly be in the hands of the 
wise and good only, human society would suffer 
but little at the hands of the lawless. 

But the patriarchal age demonstrates the 
failure of sinful man as a just ruler over his fellow 
man, though starting out under the best possible 
conditions, for the highest and most lasting success. 
The patriarchs rapidly degenerated into tribal 
chieftains and many of these into robbers. The 
fourteenth chapter of Genesis is a story of the 



56 The Eternal Purpose 

early conspiracies of ambition and avarice, such as 
have oppressed humanity through ah the centuries, 
under the name and guise of government. 

Noah Hved three hundred and fifty years after 
the flood, and was a preacher of righteousness : and 
Shem lived five hundred years to tell the story of 
antediluvian wickedness and the awful judgment 
of Divine wrath: therefore the knowledge of the 
true God was, necessarily and in fact, general among 
the descendants of Noah: yet even during the life- 
time of Shem, it is recorded ' 'they served other gods/' 

The depth of beastly degradation to which some 
of them fell is illustrated in the case of Sodom. 
And do not forget that Shem was yet alive when 
Sodom went down ''suffering the vengeance of eternal 
fire." 

If then such depravity could show a bold front 
when such servants of the Lord were present as 
Shem and Abraham, and Lot and Melchizedek, 
King of Salem, is it any wonder that many families 
having wandered off to remote parts of the earth, 
should, in the course of time, also forget God and 
sink to that degradation in which are found the 
lowest savage tribes to-day? The so-called "cave 
dwellers" and "men of the Stone age" were, in so 
far as they had any real existence, the degenerate 
offspring of ancestors who walked in the light and 
knowledge of Jehovah. 

That the knowledge of the true God and the 
fear of Him, was not wholly lost among the nations, 
during the patriarchal age, is evident from all the 
transactions between Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, 



Patriarchal Dispensation 57 

and the Cananites among whom they dwelt. Abim- 
elech of Gerar, King of the Phihstines, especially 
seems to have been one who feared and reverenced 
the Lord. 

The book of Job, which belongs to the latter 
part of the age, probably about the time the children 
of Israel were in Egypt, tells much of the customs 
and the beliefs of those days. Stock raising, in all 
its branches, was largely the employment of the 
people; and their wealth was mostly in flocks and 
herds. Mining and working in metals was part of 
the business, and considerable was done in manu- 
factures and commerce. 

Job was not an Israelite ; he was a great chieftain 
or King of a Gentile tribe. He was exceedingly 
wealthy in flocks and herds; but all his duties as a 
chieftain and the management of his vast wealth 
did not distract his mind from the worship of Jeho- 
vah. And he was a preacher of righteousness, as 
Eliphas the Temanite testifles of him, saying, 
**Thou hast instructed many and thou hast strength- 
ened the weak hands; thy words have upholden 
him that was falling; and thou hast strengthened the 
feeble knees." And it is doubtless true that there 
were many pious persons, among the nations, 
outside of Israel, especially those nations which 
dwelt in the regions contiguous to the original home 
of the human race, who worshpped the true God 
only, and testified His truth so far as it had then 
been revealed. There were men and women in 
that age who were not carried away by the in- 
creasingly strong current of wickedness, which 



58 The Eternal Purpose 

drifted the masses into the dismal swamp of idolatry 
and barbarism. 

The discussions between Job and his three 
friends, brings to our view the religious ideas and 
doctrines of that period. Eliphas, Bildad and Zophar 
doubtless voiced the opinions commonly held by 
the people. The substance of all their arguments 
amounted to this, **They that plow iniquity and 
sow wickedness, reap the same.'' Job. 4:8. But 
their idea was that the reaping was all done in this 
life. They maintained that the truly righteous 
persons are preserved by God, in health and in 
comforts of life; that calamities and sicknesses are 
the punishments which God visits upon those who 
sin, especially secret sins, for the purpose of reclaim- 
ing them, and that the spirit manifested by the 
sufferer is the token by which men may know the 
real character of that person's heart toward God. 
If he acknowledges secret sins, and confesses them, 
he is forgiven and may be restored ; if he does not, 
but maintains that he has not sinned, it is evidence 
that he is perverse and wicked. 

They had no belief in retribution to the wicked 
in a future life ; but that when the wicked died, that 
was the end of him : he had no hereafter. On this, 
Zophar says, **The triumphing of the wicked is short, 
and the joy of the hypocrite for a moment ; though 
his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his 
hands reach to the clouds, he shall perish forever 
like his own dung; they which have seen him shall 
say, Where is he ? He shall fly away as a dream and 



Patriarchal Dispensation 5^ 

shall not be found, yea, he shall be chased away as 
a vision of the night.'' Chap. 20:5,-8. 

Job, on the other hand, maintained that calami- 
ties and diseases were not necessarily the results of 
the suflferer's own sins ; nor were success in business 
with wealth and the peaceable enjoyments of wealth, 
to the end of life, evidences of righteousness. He 
says, ''The wicked become old, yea, are mighty in 
power. Their seed is established in their sight with 
them, and their offspring before their eyes. Their 
houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God 
upon them. They send forth their little ones like 
a flock, and their children dance. They take the 
timbrel and harp and rejoice at the sound of the 
organ. They spend their days in wealth, and in a 
moment go down to the grave. They say unto 
God, Depart from us ; for we desire not the knowl- 
edge of thy way. What is the Almighty that we 
should serve Him ? And what profit should we 
have if we pray unto Him?" Chap. 21 :7, 15. But 
Job continues and declares that a day of reckoning 
is coming to the wicked, even though he may have 
lived to the end of this life in the enjoyment of 
health, quietness and abundance, he says, "The 
wicked is reserved to the day of destruction, they 
shall be brought forth to the day of wrath." V. 30. 

Subsequently, the Lord Himself testified to the 
correctness of Job's doctrine, and to the error of his 
opponents. See chapter 42. 



60 The Eternal Purpose 



MIGRATIONS OF THE PEOPIvE AND PHYSICAIv DIVER- 
SITIES OF NATIONS. 

The tenth chapter of Genesis gives an account 
of the migrations of the different famiHes and tribes 
which were promoted by the confusion of tongues. 
The directions in which they journeyed and settled 
is sufficiently indicated, and the correctness of the 
Bible account is fully substantiated by modern 
ethnological discoveries. 

It is manifest that some very marked differences 
of features and complexion, and to some extent 
also, of physical form, were early manifested by 
which races, and even tribes were differentiated. 

It can not be maintained that these differences 
were brought about by climatic influences alone; 
nor indeed, that climate had very much to do with 
the matter ; they are still manifest where tribes have 
for time out of memory occupied adjacent terri- 
tory and about the same climate. 

There were two things entering into family 
affairs in those days, which acting together, are 
of ample potency to fully account for all known 
differences found in the human race. 

One of these is what is called **a freak of nature," 
that is, a person who is, in some form, very different 
from the rest of the family, like Esau, who was 
covered with thick set hair, so that the back of his 
liand felt like the skin of a kid. Many such cases 
have reproduced their own likeness in children, 
even under the most adverse circumstances. The 



Patriarchal Dispensation 61 

children of Anak were a tribe of giants and so were 
Goliath and his sons, each one having six fingers on 
each hand and six toes on each foot. It is not un- 
common in these days to see Albinos some of whose 
children are Albinos also. A noted traveler and 
correspondent, in a recent letter from the far East, 
mentions a case which came under his observation, 
of a man who was bom covered with hair, and with- 
out teeth back of the incisors. He had a daughter 
like himself, and she had a child that was the same ; 
although the man's parents, his own wife and the 
daughter's husband had no such marking. 

The second matter which comes in for application 
to the ancients, but which does not apply to modern 
civilized people, is close inbreeding, which under the 
laws of Moses, is forbidden, was then the common 
practice and without rebuke. Abram's wife was 
his own half sister, the daughter of his father. 
And Nahor, Abram's brother, took the daughter of 
another brother, Haran, for his wife. When Isaac, 
the offspring of Abraham and his half sister Sarah, 
was old enough to take a wife, the maids of the 
people among whom they lived did not suit their 
ideas, so they sent back to the country of their own 
near relations and got Rebekah. She was the 
grand daughter of Nahor, Abraham's brother, 
whose wife was his own niece. So Rebekah was an 
inbred cousin to Isaac. Jacob and Esau were the 
offspring of Isaac and Rebekah. Esau broke the 
long line of inbreeding by taking several Canaanitish 
women for wives, which greatly distressed his 
father and mother; but Jacob went back to the 



62 The Eternal Purpose 

country of their blood relations and got for wives 
Leah and Rachel, his own first cousins, the daughters 
of Laban, his mother's brother. 

The case also of Lot and his two daughters, 
who survived the destruction of Sodom, who were 
so frightened that they fled to the wilderness; and 
after a time, during which they made provision for 
their own sustenance, and made wine also, conclud- 
ing that all humanity had perished except them- 
selves, they started to repopulate the earth: both 
daughters became wives of their own father. 

However disgusting to our modem ideas all 
these that we call incestuous habits may be, we 
can lay aside our disgust as to the people of those 
times; for there was no instruction and no law on 
the subject, and therefore no moral wrong. 

But close inbreeding did serve a purpose; it 
propagated individual and family idiosyncracies, 
developing them into tribal and ultimately into 
national characteristics, and these two things, 
freak of nature and close inbreeding of ancient 
people, are, without doubt, the true solution of 
* 'the diversity of race problem. ' ' 

Of course, as we know now, such long continued 
inbreeding would be injurious to the strongest con- 
stitutions. Physical degeneracy was gradual, but 
sure. The immediate offspring of Noah and his 
sons lived to be several hundred years old. Heber, 
the third generation after Shem, lived four hundred 
and sixty-four years ; Jacob , the eleventh generation, 
was old, exhausted, and died at one hundred and 
forty-seven years. The decline in longevity had 



Patriarchal Dispensation 63 

been continuous. Joseph the son of Jacob died at 
one hundred and ten years. And at the time of the 
giving of the law, when marriage between close 
blood relations was forbidden, the ordinary limit 
of human life seems to have dropped down to about 
seventy years, and has remained about the same 
ever since. 

The migration of the people by which all parts 
of the earth became inhabited began about the 
time of the birth of Peleg, one hundred years after 
the flood. They scattered in all directions. And 
the parts in which some members of each of the 
great families of Shem, Ham and Japhet originally 
settled are still held and inhabited by their respect- 
ive descendants. And from these settlements, 
colonies still pushed out and on over the earth. 

There are two facts that have been quite over- 
looked by some who claim to be "scientific'' in their 
opinions, as to how the distant parts of the earth 
became populated: they are first — Almighty God 
had in His own hands the dispersion, migration and 
settlements of those ancient people. And every- 
thing went His way, according to His declared 
purpose. 

The second is the vital force and the power of 
physical endurance, possessed by those long lived 
men and women; so far beyond the capabilities 
of any in what is called '* historic times.'' 

For several generations after the flood, men 
lived to be from two hundred to four hundred 
years old; which gave them from one hundred and 
fifty to three hundred or more years of adult life, 



64 The Eternal Purpose 

for the study of the laws of nature, by experience 
and observation, and for communication of knowl- 
edge. And these were the men and women who 
migrated. They were full of animal vigor. Many 
of them were persons of fine intellectual ability, 
and they had inherited the astronomical knowledge 
of the ante-diluvian age. They were heirs through 
their fathers, Noah, Shem, Ham and Japhet, to 
all the arts and sciences possessed by the mighty 
men who lived before the deluge; and they had at 
first hand the story of Noah's ark with its great 
cargo of living animals, with food for them all. 
Would they not be likely to build vessels and sup- 
plying them with food and water launch out on the 
deep? And when once started, where would such 
men not go? 

That Europe, Asia, Africa, America and the 
islands of the sea were discovered and colonized 
by these vigorous men is a most natural supposition ; 
for Almighty God who had ordained that man should 
multiply and fill the whole earth, could promote 
the purpose and support them in accomplishing it. 

The colonies were necessarily separated by 
great distances, and were mostly lost to each other. 
Under such circumstances, isolation and inbreeding 
would develop and intensify any predominating 
peculiarity in each colony; and that is competent 
to fully account, in a few generations, for all physi- 
cal diversities of the human race; even the almond 
eyes of the Mongolian, the porcupine hair of the 
Papuan, the black skin and long heel of the negro 
and beardless chin of the American Indian. They 



Patriarchal Dispensation 65 

gave their mind and will up to the following of the 
animal part of their constitution, neglecting the 
spiritual, so they lost all correct knowledge of God 
and sank into debasing superstitions. They went 
lower and lower; some losing all knowledge of the 
metals and were reduced to using sharp stones, 
for implements and weapons, instead of copper and 
iron which their ancestors had used, and many, 
like the bushmen of Australia are now found hardly 
above the beasts. 

THE LESSON. 

The great lesson from the experiences and the 
outcome of both dispensational ages which we have 
been considering, is, that in the contest between 
the animal and the spiritual parts for control of the 
mind and will, the animal part has some starting 
point of advantage over the spiritual and almost 
constantly gains and holds the supremacy, dragging 
the person downward; and if not stayed and its 
power broken by a higher power intervening, it 
will sink the man quite to the level of the brute. 
It has done it, and always will. 

The reason is manifest. The animal part 
apprehends the present visible and tangible only. 
Its needs are for the present instant, and its satis- 
faction is in immediate gratification. It is wholly 
sensual. 

The spiritual sees beyond the present. It has 
in view an ideal, a future good; and it would hold 
gratification of the sensuous in abeyance for **the 



66 The Eternal Purpose 

hope that is set before." It discerns the omni- 
presence of Jehovah, and fears : and its instant 
thought is, "Thou God seest me." It apprehends 
the goodness of God in all things, and calls upon 
the heart to love and adore Him. And its satis- 
faction is the consciousness of the approval and 
friendship of the unseen Creator. 

In order that the spiritual may gain and hold 
the ascendency, the intellect must be first fully 
convinced that God is, and that there is no other 
God but Jehovah. Second, the intellect must be 
entirely convinced that all that is truly good, having 
no retributive evil joined with it, is to be found, 
and found only, in that harmony with the Creator, 
which rejoices in all His ways and enters with the 
whole heart into His service. 

These two points being thoroughly established 
in the human mind, the way for the supremacy of the 
spiritual is made clear. And to bring about such 
a condition, the dispensational method was changed 
so as to effect a beginning of that purpose. 

Let it not be supposed that God at any time 
changed His plan as seeming needs dictated from 
time to time. ** Known unto God are all His works 
from the beginning." Therefore, His plan is un- 
changeable **from the foundation of the world." 
His plan develops and opens up to our veiw, and 
He changes methods as human affairs progress 
according to the eternal plan. 



Patriarchal Dispensation 67 



ABRAHAM AND CIRCUMCISION. 

Preparatory to the purpose which He had in 
view, the Lord chose Abraham, who should be the 
progenitor of a family which He would develop 
into a nation and separate from all other nations 
of men, and so deal with them, in the sight of all, 
that they should be an object lesson, by which He 
w^ould introduce himself to all men, and put all in 
the way of obtaining true knowledge of the only 
trae and living God. 

The distinctive means to effect a separation of 
the chosen people from all other people was a 
mark in the flesh of every male Israelite, made on 
the eighth day of his life; it was indelible and was 
called circumcision. It stayed with him to the 
grave; he could not get rid of it. It was a mark 
which proved that the bearer was a member of that 
nation which God had raised up and chosen for a 
special service, to be rendered in the present life 
of the flesh. And all of the rewards promised to the 
Israelites, for services well rendered and punish- 
ments for disobedience, were to be had in this 
present life, of a visible, tangible kind, which all 
men of all nations could see and realize, and so 
in a measure, come to know the God of Israel. 

It has been claimed by some that circumcision 
was in vogue before Abraham's day, and that the 
Lord simply adopted that which already was a 
common practice, and made it a sign of His covenant 
with Abraham. But not the least foundation, 



68 The Eternal Purpose 

in any facts, can be found for such an idea. It is 
true that the Greek historian Herodotus, says the 
Egyptians and some adjoining tribes practiced 
circumcision to a hmited extent, in his day; but 
that is the first notice of the practice to be found 
outside of the Bible, and it is more than a thousand 
years after the IsraeHtes had been led out of Egypt 
under Moses and fifteen hundred years after Abra- 
ham had received the rite. It is not at all improb- 
able that some Egyptians and others, awed by 
the terrible display of Jehovah's power which 
attended the exodus, thought to appease the God 
of Israel and court His favor by adopting that 
mark in the flesh, which distinguished every man 
of His chosen people. To them, however, it was 
only one more superstition added to their already 
heavy burden. But the practice spread, in the 
course of time, over a wide extent of country, as 
the stories of Jehovah's wonderful works traveled 
among the heathen and filled them with dread. 

THE CLOSE OI^ THE AGE. 

Jacob seems to have been the last of the pa- 
triarchs. All the tribes and nations had come 
under the control of war chiefs and kings ; and none 
of Jacob's twelve sons took the place vacated by 
the death of their father, as head of the family. 

Joseph died fifty-three years after the death 
of Jacob and one hundred and forty years before 
the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt. 

A few years after the death of Joseph, the 



Patriarchal Dispensation 69 

Egyptians began to persecute the Hebrews and 
reduced them to bondage, and for something more 
than one hundred years held them in severe slavery. 
That enslavement was part of the plan of God, 
who thereby subdued their pride; and when they 
were sufficiently subdued, and they had so far 
realized the galling condition they were in and their 
utter inability to free themselves, that they began 
to call to Him for help. He took them out of the 
power of their enslavers, and held them hence- 
forw^ard in His own hands as an instrument or 
tool to convince the world that there is no God 
but Jehovah. And this was the first purpose of 
the dispensational age that followed. 



70 The Eternal Purpose 



CHAPTER VI. 

DISPENSATION OF THE LAW. 

The Eygptian was at that time the leading 
nation of the world in agriculture, commerce, 
science and arts. All other people came to her; 
and her commerce reached all nations, so that 
whatever happened in Egypt was soon known 
and talked of in every land. 

The judgments of Jehovah, by the hand of 
Moses, upon all the false gods of Egypt were more 
effective for opening the eyes of men than if done 
in every little tribe of the scattered people, for, 
standing as it were, uninterested spectators, the 
people of other lands could more dispassionately 
see and acknowledge that the gods of Egypt were 
immeasurably inferior to the God of Israel. And 
if the gods of Egypt were so inferior, how might it 
be with all those of all other nations? 

Indeed, the elevating of Egypt into the greatest 
nation of the day was for the sole purpose that in 
judgments on them might be exhibited to all the 
world, that there is no God but Jehovah, as it is 
written, ''The Lord God said unto Moses, Rise up 
early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh, 
and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the 
Hebrews, Let my people go that they may serve me ; 
for I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine 



Dispensation of The Law 71 

heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people ; 
that thou mayest know that there is none Hke me 
in all the earth. For now I will stretch out my 
hand that I may smite thee and thy people with 
pestilence, and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. 
And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee 
up for to show in thee my power and that my name 
may be declared throughout all the earth.'' Ex. 
9:13-16. 

It must not be supposed that the favor bestowed 
upon the children of Israel was because they were 
a better or more spiritual people than any other. 
Among them were good men and some intensely 
wicked ones, but altogether, good and bad, they 
were called the people of God. Many times they 
were warned in words similar to these, ''Not for 
your sakes, do I this, saith the Lord God, be it 
known to you, be ashamed and confounded for your 
own ways, O house of Israel." Ezk. 56 : 32 ; Deut. 9 : 
45. 

Indeed, the Israelites were, at that time, far from 
being pure monotheists. They truly believed in 
Jehovah as the God of their fathers, but that the 
gods of Egypt were not gods at all, and that Jehovah 
v/as the only God, they were not sure. 

They had well in mind the traditions that 
Jehovah had promised great things to their ances- 
tors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; but their faith 
was very weak, for they did not know God. They 
only knew something about Him from hearsay. 

The ten plagues put upon the Egyptians were 
quite as much of a revelation and astonishment 



72 The Eternal Purpose 

to the Hebrews as to the sons of Ham. They could 
hardly believe their own senses that it was so. 

The awful demonstration of Jehovah's power 
at the Red Sea freed them from the fear and dread 
of their former masters, but did not free them from 
a superstitious belief in other gods. 

And how soon was this exhibited when Moses 
was gone from them, up into the mountain for 
forty days, at the time he received the tablets 
of the ten commandments. Taking advantage of 
his absence, they made themselves an image of a 
calf, in imitation of one of the gods of Egypt, 
showing thereby how very little was their apprecia- 
tion of Jehovah. 

For a period of about five hundred years after 
taking them out of Egypt, the whole management 
of the Lord with the Hebrews seemed a continuous 
effort to rid their minds of polytheism, and estab- 
lish in them an unwavering belief and trust in 
Himself. When they were hungry or thirsty, 
He supplied their needs in such a way that they 
knew it was His hand that gave. When they 
obeyed Him, their enemies fled before them; when 
they forgot Him, their foes easily mastered them; 
then when in distress, they called upon His name 
for dehverance, their enemies again fled from them. 

During this time they had no politics, their only 
system of government was the law given by Moses, 
and that was a pure theocracy. God was their 
king and they had nothing to do with the govern- 
ment but to obey the laws. 

At last, however, they v/anted a king like the 



Dispensation of The Law 73 

heathen around them. The Lord let them have 
their own way, just as He always docs with humanity, 
and He also let them have the consequences. 
And since it was a man they wanted instead of 
God, He gave them Saul, the son of Kish. 

SMITE AMALEK. 

It was during the reign of King Saul, that a 
matter is said to have occurred, but some have 
greatly doubted the truth of the story. Because, 
as they say, judging from the standpoint of the 
gospel dispensation, the narrative does not seem 
to be in harmony with the goodness of God, and 
that such an act was unnecessary and cruel. 

Now the revealed character of Jehovah is 
indeed the solid foundation on which all truth stands. 
And that character is "the same yesterday, to-day 
and forever." "In Him is no variableness nor 
shadow of. turning." And any story or any doc- 
trine which men may teach, that is not in fullest 
harmony with that character, as it is declared in 
the Bible, and fully revealed in Jesus Christ, is 
indeed not to be believed. 

In respect to the command, *'Now go and smite 
Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, 
and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, 
infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass," 
(1 Sam. 15:3), which was given by the Lord to 
King Saul, and was mostly carried out by his army, 
and to some other similar commands, given in the 
name of the Lord, it would be well for us to review 



74 The Eternal Purpose 

the circumstances, and get as nearly all the attend- 
ing facts as we can, then we shall be more likely 
to judge correctly whether these stories are in 
harmony with the known character of God, and 
therefore probably true, or not true. 

In the first place, it was Jehovah who enacted 
and declared the inexorable law, **The soul that 
sinneth, it shall die." And so death is passed 
upon all. It remains only to determine the time 
and the circumstances when and how death shall 
seize the sinner. The stories of the deluge and of 
Sodom are not generally doubted, and yet they are 
unquestionably, stories of the wholesale destruction 
of the *4nfant and suckling'' along with the guilty 
parents. In both of these stories, the guilt of the 
parents — their abominable characters — is fully 
shown before Jehovah hurls destruction upon them, 
and the destruction is, manifestly, not accom- 
plished through the agency of men, but comes 
immediately from the hand of God. 

There are many other stories of the wholesale 
destruction of those who persistently rebel against 
God, by the power of the Lord, without human 
instrumentality. And these are generally accepted 
as reasonable and true by those who object to 
the reasonableness and probable truth of those 
stories in which it is told that God commanded men, 
the Israelites, to take the sword and utterly destroy, 
put to death, whole tribes of the heathen. 

Under the instruction and guidance of Jehovah, 
Abraham left the land of the Chaldees, and when he 
had settled in the land of the Canaanites, **The Lord 



Dispensation of The Law 75 

made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy 
seed have I given this land, from the river of Eg>'pt 
unto the great river Euphrates." And he further 
said to Abram, "Know of a surety that thy seed 
shall be a stranger in a land not theirs, and shall 
ser\'e them, but in the fourth generation, they shall 
come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites 
is not yet full/' Gen. 15 :13— 16. The name Amorite 
is doubtless here used in reference to nearly all 
the tribes or nations inhabiting the land of Canaan, 
as it is believed by those who have made the most 
thorough investigation, to be most commonly used 
as a general term and not as the name of a distinct 
tribe. 

The brief sentence, **For the iniquity of the Amor- 
ites is not yet julV w^as equivalent to saying that 
they were on the down grade, going from bad to 
worse, and that they would so continue, until 
Jehovah would destroy them out of the land. 
And such is declared to have been the case in fact, 
when more than three hundred years after, having 
brought the children of Israel to the border of the 
land, and just before they were to pass over the 
Jordan River, Jehovah, by the mouth of Moses, said, 
**Hear, O Israel, Thou art to pass over Jordan 
this day, to go to possess nations greater and mightier 
than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, 
speak not thou in thine heart, after the Lord thy 
God, hath cast them out from before thee, saying. 
For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me 
in to possess this land, but for the wickedness of 



76 The Eternal Purpose 

those nations, the Lord doth drive them out from 
before thee." 

Every conceivable form of abomination is 
charged home to them, and their habits were loath- 
some. They were well informed of the judgments 
of God on the Egyptians, and of the dreadful 
affair at the Red Sea, as some of them confessed, 
in their fear of the Israelites, they said, ''Because 
of the name of Jehovah, thy God, for we have heard 
the fame of Him, and all that He did in Egypt. 
And all that He did to the two kings of the Amor- 
ites that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon, king of 
Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan." A few of 
them feared the mighty God of the Israelites, 
and at once surrendered; these few were allowed 
to remain in quiet possession of their lives and 
homes, but the greater mass of them hated the 
God of Israel more as they learned more about Him, 
and with mad fury they persevered in their horrid 
idolatries and beastly practices, until little by little 
they were destroyed out of the land, by the sword 
of that people whose God was Jehovah. They had 
filled the cup of their inqiuity to the full. 

The demoniac character of the Amalekites 
whom Jehovah afterward commanded King Saul to 
''Destroy all they have and spare not, but slay 
both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox 
and sheep, camel and ass," is shown in the vicious 
and unprovoked attack they made on the children 
of Israel when they were journeying through the 
desert, led by the pillar of cloud by day, and by 
pillar of fire by night. That day and night mani- 



Dispensation of the Law 77 

festation of the Divine presence was as visible to the 
Amalekites as it was to the Israehtes. The corpses 
of the Egyptian army were yet Hning the shore 
of the nearby sea, for it was but a little while 
since that dread night, when Pharaoh's host, defying 
the God of Israel, met their destruction at his hand 
in the Red Sea. Why did not the Amalekites 
fear to enter into a contest with Him who had 
opened a way for his people through the bottom 
of the deep and in the same place hurled the waters 
together, destroying the army of the mightiest na- 
tion then in the earth? But their wickedness 
had become madness, and in spite of all these 
manifestations, which were well known to them, 
they hurried to raise their puny arms against 
Jehovah. They were beaten back; but in such a 
way that their discomfiture was just as manifestly 
the work of Israel's God as was the destruction 
of Pharaoh's army. 

But their hatred was inveterate and deadly, 
and during the centuries that intervened from that 
first uncalled for and unprovoked attack, until 
the order was given to destroy them utterly, they 
nursed their malignity against Israel and seemingly 
with every opportunity they robbed and murdered 
the people of God. 

Surely, if Sodom was worthy ''the vengeance 
of eternal fire" (Jude 7), Amalek was worthy of 
extirpation. Saul, the King of Israel, however, 
failed to carry out the command for their utter 
destruction to the very letter, a remnant w^as 



78 The Eternal Purpose 

left, the subsequent history of which was that of 
a horde of banditti. 1 Sam. 30. 

But some will say, Why did not the Lord punish 
them with His own hand, as He did in the case 
of Sodom and the antediluvians? To require the 
children of Israel to kill and destroy them, would 
have a brutalizing effect on those who did it, and 
it does not seem like Him who is infinite in goodness 
to command men to do anything, the reflex effect 
of which would be to degrade their own characters. 

That reasoning has a seeming soundness in it, 
but it is only from a one-sided view. There is 
another side from which the matter looks quite 
different. 

We must remember that the great matter in 
hand at that time, the purpose for which the Creator 
was using the Israelites, was to establish His name 
in all the earth, until the world should know that 
Jehovah is God alone, and there is no other. 

The wholesale destruction of the antediluvians 
by the invisible hand of God, as the story came 
down from the fathers, did not have that result; 
but the Israelites going into battle, few in numbers, 
undisciplined in war and with inferior weapons, 
compared with their enemies, but going in the 
name of their God, did prove to all observers that the 
God of Israel was the only true and living God; 
that what the enemy trusted in as gods were no 
gods at all. And it is a well-known fact that the 
self-brutalizing effects of Israel's wars were more 
than counter-balanced by the humanizing effects 
of those laws which constituted their social polity. 



Dispensation of The Law 79 

We must also remember that preparations 
were not yet completed whereby it was possible 
for men to come to that knowledge and conception 
of the divine character, that would draw their 
hearts out in Love to Him. Not until He was 
manifested in the person of the Messiah could that 
be. And finally, whether cut off by the sword 
with the Amalekite, or consumed in the fire with 
the Sodomite, or drowned in the flood with the 
antediluvian, or meeting death in the delirium of 
fever, or sinking to the grave in the pains and 
decrepitude of old age, all heathendom shall, 
with the men of Sodom and Nineveh, in the day 
of judgment, stand on terms more favorable, in 
the sight of Jehovah, than those like the men of 
Capernaum, who, having the opportunities of the 
presence of the Messiah, treated the then manifested 
goodness of God with indifference. 

If the opportunities for the heathen to know 
the only true God, and surrender their hearts to 
Him, ends forever with the brief life of this world, 
their having an existence at all is without any appar- 
ent reason, and none is revealed; but if the dire 
evils of this life prepare them for accepting a better, 
to which they shall be introduced in another world, 
their case is made consistent with the infinite goodness 
of the Creator. 

MONOTHEISM ESTABLISHED. 

For more than five hundred years after Saul, 
the Israelites had kings, some of whom greatly 



80 The Eternal Purpose 

oppressed them. But all the time the hand of 
God was visible, delivering them whenever the 
consequences of their sins became too heavy for 
them and they cried unto the lyord. **For His mercy 
endureth forever." 

After about a thousand years from the giving 
of the law, and during which time every genera- 
tion of them had ample opportunity to personally 
experience and observe the manifestations of divine 
power and mercy, God withdrew from them His 
protection, on account of their persistent idolatries, 
and the nation was carried away captive to Babylon, 
and the land was made desolate for seventy years. 

While in the Babylonish captivity, their ex- 
periences and observations of polytheism, so 
utterly disgusted them, that those who returned 
to their own country never again forsook the 
nominal worship of Jehovah. So, at last, and for 
the first time in the history of man, there was a 
nation that stood firmly to the testimony that there 
is only one God — Jehovah is His name. At last 
great deprivations and sufferings had forced the 
Israelites to the observance of the first command- 
ment of the decalogue, and they became wide awake 
to the meaning of those Hebrew words which in 
the English A. V. are rendered, "I am the Lord 
thy God, which have brought thee out of the land 
of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou 
shalt have no other Gods before me." 



Dispensation of The Law 81 



ELOHIM. 

The Hebrews, to whom it was given, knew the 
meaning of each word of ' that commandment. 
But the translation, according to our A. V. fails to 
convey to the English reader just what was said. 
Let us read it over again, leaving two words of the 
original Hebrew to stand in the translation, thus, 
*'I am Jehovah, thy Elohini, that brought thee 
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, 
Thou shalt have no other elohim." 

What did the Creator mean when He said, 
"I am thy Elohim, thou shalt have no other elohim?'^ 

It is not another name added to Jehovah, 
but it definitely declares that Jehovah has been 
something to them, namely, that which brought 
them out of Egypt, out of bondage, and that He 
should continue to be that same thing to them, 
and that no other person or thing should ever be 
to them in that same character. 

The word is in the plural form, of which the 
singular eloh-ah is always, in the Bible, rendered 
God, when applied to Jehovah, and god when applied 
to a supposed deity of the heathen. 

But the plural form elohim, found in the first 
commandment, is used in a much wider range of 
meaning than the singular. It is rendered mighty. 
Gen, 23:6; Ex. 9:28; great, Gen. 30:8; princes, 
Ex. 12:12; in the margin very great, 1 Sam. 14:15; 
judges, Ex. 21:6; 22:8, 9 and 28 in the margin; 
angels, Ps. 8:5, and is applied to holy men Ps. 



82 The Eternal Purpose 

82:1, 6, and is frequently rendered gods^ when 
referring to heathen deities. 

The word, therefore, does not necessarily imply 
that the person or thing to which it is applied 
is Jehovah, the uncreated Creator. But in all its uses 
it carries the idea of greatness, authority, power 
and sufficiency. 

The singular form, elohah, is found in the Bible 
altogether less than fifty times, while the plural 
form, elohim, is used about fourteen hundred times. 
Why the plural should be used so much more than 
the singular, when it applies to Jehovah, has been a 
great puzzle. Some commentators have thought it 
an allusion to a trinity of persons, but that is a 
strained construction and is impossible, as we will 
see by substituting the trinity of appellations 
instead of the word God (Elohim) in the first com- 
mandment. **I am the Lord, thy Father, Son and 
Holy Ghost, Thou shalt have no other father, 
son and holy ghost before me." That explanation 
will not do; it destroys itself. 

We may not doubt, however, that there is a 
purpose in the divine method for using the plural, 
but in seeking for the right understanding we must 
take care to abide closely within the lines of that 
which is written in the Scriptures. And since, as 
we see, the meaning cannot refer to a plurality 
of persons, it seems limited to that plurality which 
we call the attributes of God, the vSame which have 
their image and likeness in man. 

According to the most able Hebraists, the pri- 
mary meaning of elohim is, authority, might, power, 



Dispensation of The Law 83 

ability. Jehovah, therefore, in the first command- 
ment, demanded that he should be recognized 
not only as the source of ability in every conceiv- 
able action of life, but also the active accomplisher 
of all His own work, even though men may be used 
by Him as the apparent agents. 

This precludes our inventing any devices, or 
forming any combinations, not contained in His 
instructions, as a means of accomplishing any thing 
which He has said shall come to pass. 

If we constantly realize this and recognize it in 
practice, then Jehovah is our Elohim. But if we fail 
to truly realize this, and shall rely on or trust 
in things of our own, or of any human creation, 
whether real or imaginary, then those things are 
our elohim, our god. 

Our Lord Jesus had a perfect realization of 
this, and He said, **The words that I speak unto 
you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that 
dwelleth in me. He doeth the works." John. 14:10. 

Jehovah is infinitely perfect in knowledge, 
understanding and wisdom, therefore. He has a 
plan and method for accomplishing every one of 
His purposes, and all of His plans are of necessity 
absolutely perfect and competent. But His ways 
are not our ways because of our lack of knowledge, 
understanding and wisdom ; and if, in our endeavor 
to do His service, we choose our own plans and 
methods, instead of first patiently learning His way, 
from His written word, we shall fail to accomplish 
His service, in fact, and will do something else, 
something that is not His service, of the ''wood, 



84 The Eternal Purpose 

hay, stubble" kind, which will not abide when 
tried by the fire. 1 Cor. 3 :12, 13. 

Every method of work which the Lord has 
appointed will demonstrate that what is accom- 
plished under His direction, has not been by human 
power, or influence of men, but by the power of the 
Divine Spirit, in accordance with His word. This 
was illustrated at Jericho. In that place, their 
enemies were fortified by a strong wall ; the Israelites 
were told to surround the fort and blow on horns, 
this they should do every day for six days, on the 
seventh day they should surround the fortress 
seven times, and then while a long blast was made 
on the horns, all the people should shout. They 
did so and the walls fell down flat, so the fortified 
city was overthrown. 

Manifestly no human power entered into the 
the destruction of these walls. Jehovah, alone, 
was there, the Elohim of the Israelites, as was then 
demonstrated. All they had to do was to obey 
Him. 

All who are familiar with the Bible history 
of those typical people, the children of Israel, 
from their leaving Egypt to their return from the 
Babylonish captivity, will recall many similar 
occasions, when it was repeatedly demonstrated 
that though men were required to act as though 
the work was to be done by them, yet the out- 
come showed plainly that the Lord did all, without 
their aid, and that He did not employ them for 
any help they could be to Him, but only to teach 
them and us to obey Him implicitly^ and then He 



Dispensation of The Law 85 

would accomplish whatever was His purpose to do. 

Could anything seem more foolish to the busi- 
ness methods of men, the wdsdom of this world, 
than to surround a fortress and blow on horns and 
shout, as a means of breaking down the walls? 
And perhaps every act of the ceremonial law seems 
equally silly, at that same judgment seat. But 
the things w^hich are foolish to men demonstrate 
the wisdom of God. For it is by obedience to all 
these seemingly silly requirements, that we have 
learned that Jehovah is good, that He is pure and 
holy, that He is true and faithful, and that if we 
comply implicitly with all His requirements, He 
will be our "very present help in trouble", our shield 
our strong defense, our strength, our wisdom, our 
Saviour, our all, in all things, our Elohim. 

The word God is a shortening of the word good, 
and in its original meaning is descriptive of only 
one of the divine attributes, God is Good. Plainly 
then it does not translate into English the Hebrew 
elohim. 

And w^e have been left to hunt for the real 
meaning of the first commandment without the 
aid of the English w^ord which has been substituted 
for it. Since, hovv^ever, the word God has come 
into common use as a substitute for the Hebrew 
word, and as we have no English word which is its 
full equivalent, we must invest that word with 
all the properties which belong to the Hebrew 
word elohim. 

Under the law of Moses, those men who were 
appointed to judge the disputes of the people, 



86 The Eternal Purpose 

were called elohim, for authority and power was 
conferred upon them by the Lord. Jesus says, 
"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth/. 
By that giving to Him all power in heaven and 
in earth, the Father has constituted Him Elohim, 
and so He is ''Emmanuel, God with us." Matt. 1 :23. 
And the Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus Christ 
will continue to hold all power which the Father 
has put into His hands, until He has subdued all 
opposition. ''Then cometh the end, when He 
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even 
the Father, when He shall have put down (abrogated) 
all rule and all authority and power. For He must 
reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet, 
and when all things shall be subdued unto Him, 
then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto 
Him that put all things under Him, that God may 
be all in all. " 1 Cor. 15 :24-28. 

EFFECT ON OTHER NATIONS. 

The long, hard drill through which the Hebrews 
were brought for more than a thousand years, 
until a't last polytheism was purged out of them, 
V. as not without its effects on other civilized nations. 
Though during all that time it seems that the 
Creator had paid no direct attention to what they 
believed or practiced, for no messengers were sent 
to instruct them in divine truth. 

The Persian sage, Zoroaster, lived and taught 
his philosophy probably about the time that the 
Hebrews were in bondage in Babylon, but nothing 



Dispensation of The Law 87 

in his doctrines bears any likeness to the ways of 
God. 

Gautama probably lived about the time the 
Israelites returned from Babylon. He was in India, 
where, by means of commercial intercourse with 
Babylon, the Hebrew ideas of chastity undoubtedly 
reached. He was the founder of Buddhism, a religion 
that has for many centuries held about one-fifth 
the population of the world its votaries. But Budd- 
hism is very far off from the doctrines of the 
Bible. 

Confucius, the Chinese wise man, flourished in 
the dim ages also, from five to seven hundred years 
before Christ. There was nothing spiritual in his 
teachings. All his ideas pertained alone to this 
life; how it could be lived most contentedly and 
happily. 

The same God could not have been the author 
of the widely divergent religious systems inaugurated 
by those men and also the author of the doctrines 
taught in the Bible. 

There is no trace of any evidence that God at 
any time tried directly to lead any people excepting 
the Hebrews in the way of truth. But the traditions 
coming down through all the tribes and nations 
from the post-diluvian fathers, together with the 
frequent rumors of the mighty acts of the God of 
the Hebrews, especially the judgment on the gods 
of Egypt, the crossing of the Red vSea and destruc- 
tion of Pharaoh's army, kept alive in all nations, 
at least those of Europe, Western Asia and Northern 
Africa, the belief that, however many gods there 



88 The Eternal Purpose 

might be, there was one great God over all, who 
was the Creator of all other gods and of the whole 
universe, who was absolute in authority and irre- 
sistible in power. 

In the meantime, though the wildest super- 
stitions were rife among the more ignorant classes, 
the better and more educated classes in the most 
civilized nations were questioning the popular 
religious superstitions and were looking for more 
substantial evidences on which to rest. 

Such were the conditions at the end of the Mosaic 
age, or dispensation of the law, and the beginning 
of the gospel age. 

OTHER MATTERS FORETOI^D BY PROPHETS. 

While, then, the first object of that dispensa- 
tional age was to declare the name of the Creator 
in all the earth, and establish a nation which should 
witness that Jehovah is God alone, other matters 
corollary to this were at the same time foretold 
by the prophets and illustrated in the law, according 
to which all men should ultimately come to know 
the true character and understand the ways of 
Jehovah. In other words, the whole plan of salva- 
tion in Christ Jesus, as set forth in the New Testa- 
ment, was foretold by the prophets and illustrated 
by types in the law of Moses, which we will clearly 
see as we progress in this study. 

To Abraham, the friend of God, was made the 
promise, '*In thy seed shall all the nations of the 
earth be blessed." A something so good as to be 



Dispensation of The Law 89 

worthy of the infinite Creator was to be done, 
a blessing to all the families of the earth, without 
distinction. And the seed of Abraham was to 
be the instrument of the blessing. 

We have seen how the descendants of Abraham, 
through Isaac, were used to establish His name 
in the earth ; but the mere knowledge of that name 
could not, of itself, be a great blessing. That could, 
at most, only be a first step leading up to some 
condition which, if attained, would be a condition 
to be called blessed. 

The earth was full of human misery. Sin-laden 
human governmicnt, though better than anarchy, 
had proven not only inadequate for relief, but had 
in some respects, owing to the fallibility and wicked- 
ness of rulers, added to the distress and augmented 
the troubles. 

A management was needed that would infallibly 
extirpate evil and exalt righteousness. And such 
a management was promised. 

The prophet Daniel, after describing the human 
kingdoms, that should rule over the world, said, 
"In the days of these kings, shall the God of heaven 
set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, 
and the kingdom shall not be left to another people, 
but it shall break in pieces and consume all these 
kingdoms and it shall stand forever. ' ' 

And David describing both the king and the 
kingdom, says, ''Give the king thy judgments, O 
God, and thy righteousness to the King's son. 
He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and 
thy poor with judgment. The mountains shall 



90 The Eternal Purpose 

bring peace to the people, and the httle hills by 
righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the people, 
he shall save the children of the needy, and shall 
break in pieces the oppressor. He shall come down 
like rain upon the mown grass, as showers water the 
earth. In his day shall the righteous flourish ; and 
abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth. 
He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and 
from the river to the ends of the earth. They that 
dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him, 
all nations shall serve Him. For He shall deliver 
the needy when he crieth, the poor also, and him 
that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and 
needy, and save the soul of the needy. He shall 
redeem their souls from deceit and violence and 
precious shall their blood be in His sight. His 
name shall endure forever. His name shall be 
continued as long as the sun, and men shall call 
him blessed.'^ Ps. 72. 

In these prophesies it is made plain that the 
blessing of all nations, promised to Abraham 
through his seed, was to be at least in part, by 
means of a government which the God of heaven 
would set up. And that one called ''The seed of 
Abraham'' should be the king to whom all nations 
should become obedient. 

But further prophecy shows that the king shall 
not be alone, but that a large number of holy ones, 
called saints, shall be associated with Him in the 
kingdom, for the accomplishment of His purposes. 

In the seventh chapter, the prophet Daniel 
tells of a vision which he had while a captive in 



Dispensation o( The Law 91 

Babylon. It was of four great beasts, which an 
angel instructed him meant the four universal 
kingdoms which should be in this world. The first 
three were overthrown, but not utterly destroyed. 
The fourth was overthrown and destroyed. Then 
continuing, he says, ''And behold one like unto 
the son of man came with the clouds of heaven, 
and cam^e to the ancient of days and they brought 
Him near before Him. And there was given Him 
dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people, 
nations and languages should serve Him; His 
dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall 
not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall 
not be destroyed. 

''The ancient of days came and judgment was 
given to the saints of the Most High, and the time 
came that the saints possessed the kingdom, and 
the dominion and the greatness of the kingdom 
under the whole heaven shall be given to the people 
of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is 
an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall 
serve and obey Him." 

Some of the objects of that kingdom are set 
forth in the seventy-second psalm which we have 
before quoted, namely, The people should be 
judged with righteousness ; they should have peace ; 
the needy should be saved; the oppressor should 
be broken in pieces, the poor and needy should be 
delivered when they cry and they shall be redeemed 
from deceit and violence. 

Isaiah also describing the kingdom of God, says^ 
"A king shall reign in righteousness and princes 



92 The Eternal Purpose 

(samts) shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be 
as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert 
from the temptest, as rivers of waters in a dry 
place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 
And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim; 
and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. 
The heart also of the rash (zealous) shall understand 
knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerer shall 
be ready to speak plainly — then judgment shall 
dwell in the wilderness and righteousness remain 
in the fruitful field. And the work of righteous- 
ness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness, 
quietness and assurance forever." Isa. 32. 

These are just a few of the statements descriptive 
of the kingdom that God will set up. And they 
are to be taken in the literal meaning, as many, 
very many other Scriptures clearly show. 

Connected with the promise of the kingdom 
in which all nations should be blessed was the very 
definite promise that the king should be of the 
line of David. And that at the time of the kingdom, 
the Jews should be restored to divine favor, and 
not again cast out. A length}^ and full description 
of the return of the Jews to favor is given by the 
prophet Jeremiah, chapters 30, 31. 

The prophet Hosea had said, ''The children of 
Israel shall abide many days without a king and 
without a prince and without a sacrifice and without 
an image, and without an ephod and without a 
teraphim. Afterward shall the children of Israel 
return and seek the lyord their God and David their 



Dispensation of The Law 93 

king; and shall fear the Lord and His goodness 
in the latter day. " 

And Jeremiah says, "These are the words that 
the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning 
Judah: They shall serve the Lord their God and 
David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.'' 
Jer. 30:4, 9. 

The Jews did not understand that God would 
raise up old king David from his grave to be their 
king again, but that He would raise up a descendant 
who should be called the son of David, according 
to the promise that God had given to David that 
there should not fail him a man on the throne of 
Israel. 1 Kings 2:4. 

It is not at all strange that the Israelites were 
delighted w4th the hope which such prophesies 
set before them. They thought nothing of any 
radical change in themselves, as the first great 
necessity, without which they could not be partak- 
ers in the promised kingdom. They expected a 
man of the line of David would rise up, whom 
God would endue with power and great glory, 
who would lead them to conquer all nations of the 
earth ; over whom they would rule as princes under 
the great king; that they would be the aristocracy, 
and all other nations, tongues and tribes would be 
the common people subjects of their government. 

There was another line of prophecy which the 
Israelites entirely overlooked. The idea that the 
sacrifices of "the day of atonement" and others, 
which they offered under the law, might have a 
spiritual meaning of vital importance, seems never 



94 The Eternal Purpose 

to have entered their minds. At least it is plain 
that they never reached any true comprehension of 
the meaning of some of those sacrifices, and so 
never could in any degree comprehend those 
prophecies which declare that after a certain time, 
''Shall Messiah be cut off," Dan. 9:26, and that the 
**arm of the Lord" should be despised and rejected 
of men; wounded for our transgressions; cut off 
out of the land of the living for the transgressions 
of the people ; make His grave with the wicked and 
with the rich in His death ; make His soul an offering 
for sin; be numbered with the transgressors and 
bear the sins of many and make intercessions for 
the transgressors. " Isa. 53. 

All ages have demonstrated that men may know 
the truths of God, that He is, and that he hates 
wickedness and loves righteousness, and at the 
same time continue to hold these truths in unright- 
eousness. Rom. 1 :18. 

That is, they may continue to do those things 
which they know are hateful to God, because their 
hearts are not in harmony with Him. They prefer 
to continue to live in unrighteousness. 

COMMANDMENTS DO NOT WIN THE HEART. 

The commandments of the law, given through 
Moses, and the penalties attached to their infraction 
did not win the hearts of the people unto God. 
They obeyed them to what extent they obeyed 
them at all because they must, or suffer the penalties 



Dispensation of The Law 95 

if they did not, and because all their temporal 
interests were conserved in keeping them. 

But *'By the law is the knowledge of sin/' 
Rom. 3:20. That is, through the law, men came 
to learn that they w^ere out of harmony with the 
Creator, and that to do what He wanted them to 
do was entirely contrary to their own inclinations. 

The law of commandments, saying, thou shalt 
and thou shalt not, can be for the animal man only, 
it can not be for the spiritual man. Therefore, 
that which we call the dispensation of the law 
was not the kingdom of God, in fact, although God 
was nominally the king of the Israelites, but it 
was a system of types for the instruction of men 
concerning that true kingdom of God, written 
not only on tablets of stone, but written in the 
hearts, the deep affections, of all who believe God. 



96 The Eternal Purpose 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE RECONCILIATION. 

Having established His name in the earth on 
the strong foundation of His mighty works ; and 
having by the same means prepared a people whose 
established faith and whose continued existence is 
the irrefutable testimony that Jehovah is God and 
there is none other, the next step we see taken was 
that which should win men into harmony with 
Himself; a harmony that works by love. For He 
who is alone described by that one word love can 
reign, in fact, only by love. 

His being and power had been demonstrated 
by His works, now His true character must be 
manifested in order that men may come to know 
and understand Him, that they may love Him. 

God is spirit, a spirit being; man is animal, an 
animal being, with only spiritual faculties. The 
animal man can not discern, can not understand 
the spirit. 

When at any time the spirit has communicated 
to the understanding of a man, it has been either 
by visions, or by actually assuming the human form 
and appearing as a man. 

When God would have men know His character 
He must exhibit His character to men by a man. 

This He did. It was the life work in the flesh 



The Reconciliation 97 

of the Messiah, the Christ, by whom '*God was mani- 
fested in the flesh/' 1 Tim. 3:16. For Christ 
Jesus is *'The image of the invisible God.'' Col. 
1:15. "The express image of His person." Heb. 
1 :3. Therefore He is ''Emmanuel, God with us.'' 

*'The law was given by Moses," by which is the 
knowledge of sin. But grace and truth came by 
Jesus Christ. For by Him is the way of forgiveness 
and the gift of eternal life, through the goodness 
and forbearance of God made known. 

The life and ministry ot Jesus Christ is the 
daily exhibit of a man perfect in the image and 
likeness of God. He was different from Adam 
as a man, in this; Adam did not know either good or 
evil till after he had plunged into sin ; but of the 
Messiah it is written, ''By His knowledge shall my 
righteous servant justify many." Isa. 53:11. 
That is to say, because He knew and understood 
the Father perfectly, and also knew perfectly all 
the conditions and the relations in which humanity 
stood to the Creator, He was able to set all inquiring 
minds to rights, making all things clear to those 
who before could not apprehend God correctly. 

Most of the mighty works or miracles done during 
the Mosaic dispensation were done to demonstrate 
that Jehovah is the Almighty, the only true and 
living God. They were done to be seen and felt 
by nations and peoples. Only a few were done in 
that privacy which brings to view the sympathy of 
the Creator with the distress — the aching heart of 
an individual soul. 

But all the mighty works of Jesus Christ were 



98 The Eternal Purpose 

done in manifestation of that tender sympathy 
of Him, who, though infinite and omnipotent, 
dehghts most to be called **Our Father." 

He wants us to know that our innocent enjoy- 
ments are a joy to Him; and the first mighty act 
of Him who manifested God in the flesh was at a 
marriage feast, where He added to the happiness 
of the occasion by turning water into the best of 
wine. 

He wants us to know that *4n all our afflictions 
He is afflicted.'' Isa. 63:9. He wants us to cast 
all our cares on Him. 1 Pet. 5:7. And so when 
a disconsolate father came to Him, who is the 
express image of the Father, pleading for the healing 
of his child,'' saying, **Sir, come down ere my son 
die," He tenderly looked on him and said, *'Thy 
son liveth." Luke 4:46. And when the laboring 
men, dependent on daily toil for their living, 
stopped their work to hear Him speak the good 
words of the kingdom of God, Jehovah's sympathy 
and care for us in our necessary business toils was 
manifest by the wonderful draft of fishes He gave 
them, when they returned to their work. Luke 5 :4. 

To show us that the Almighty God will over- 
master the powers of nature in behalf of suffering 
ones who call upon Him for help. He commanded 
the wind and the waves, saying, ** Peace, be still, 
and the wind ceased there was a great calm." And 
the ship's crew were saved. 

Leprosy, under the law of Moses, typified sin, 
casting the soul out of the congregation of God's 
people, and bringing it down to death. A leper, 



The Reconciliation 99 

driven from his house and the loved ones of home ; 
whom no man dared to touch nor even come near, 
cried piteously, from the agony of his soul, 'Xord, 
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." Then 
He that manifested God in the flesh, put forth His 
hands and touched him, saying, with the tenderness 
of the infinite Father, **I will, be thou clean; and 
immediately his leprosy was cleansed." Matt. 8:3. 

When John, the baptizer, sent two of his disciples 
to ask Him, **Art thou He that should come, or do 
we look for another?" The Manifestor of God 
replied, "Go shew John again those things which 
ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, 
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf 
hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the 
gospel preached unto them, and blessed is he 
whosoever shall not be oft'ended in me. ' ' Matt. 1 1 :3. 

How should John know by these things? Be- 
cause the prophets had foretold these things to be 
the work of the Messiah when He should come, 
as it is written, ''The spirit of the Lord God is upon 
me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach 
good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to 
bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to 
the captive, and the opening of the prison (the 
grave), to them that are bound (by death), to 
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Isa. 
61 :L 

The common people heard Him gladly and 
talked among themselves of "the gracious words 
that proceeded from His mouth," as he opened to 
them the good things that God had prepared for 

LofC. 



100 The Eternal Purpose 

them that love Him. Isa. 64:1. 1 Cor. 2:9. And 
as He described to them the kingdom of God, when it 
should take the place of the misrule of man, and 
that righteousness and peace which all the prophets 
had foretold should take possession of all the earth, 
they were glad. 

But His preaching of the kingdom of God was 
very different from that which the priests and 
elders and scribes had taught them. Their preach- 
ing had very little in it about the kingdom of God, 
especially concerning the hopes of a future life. 

Their burden was mostly ''practical religion," 
so-called ; how the people should do religious service, 
pay tithes, attend synagogues, and observe the 
tradition of the elders. 

It was plain to all hearers that if He preached 
the truth, their preaching had been largely fool- 
ishness. 

But one thing was very evident, all the common 
people could see it, ''He went about doing good'' and 
He took no remuneration. He owned no property 
and accumulated none. He taught and practiced 
that alms-giving should be in secret, and never to 
be seen of men; that prayer to God should be in 
secret, never in public places, where unbelievers 
and irreverent ones would hear. 

All these things were a reproach to the church- 
men of those days; for they were covetous, striving 
for wealth and positions of honor, and to be called 
rabbi, that is, looked up to as persons to be rev- 
erenced. Their alms-giving was largely so done 
that they might be praised for generosity; they 



The Reconciliation 101 

made long prayers in public, and so their piety was 
spoken of; they laid burdens of religious service on 
the common people, which were not in the law of 
Moses, but were only the traditions of the elders, 
while themselves much neglected the services 
required by the law of Moses. Many of them were 
wicked, selfish men, and when their false teachings, 
duplicities and covetousness were brought into 
contrast with the kindness, the practical goodness, 
the evidently true teaching, and the manifest 
purity of Him who manifested God, it was more 
than their wicked hearts could endure. 

They hated Him and set traps to catch Him in 
His words, that they might accuse Him to the 
Roman Government, as one trying to overthrow 
it. They failed because it was not God's purpose 
to overthrow that government at that time, and 
no word ever escaped the lips of Jesus which sounded 
in that direction. 

But by lying, they at last secured His arrest; 
though the Roman governor, after having examined 
Him, declared that He found no evil in Him; yet 
to please the Jews the governor delivered Him to 
be crucified, and He was very hastily put to that 
most cruel and ignominious death. 

WHO WAS THIS MAN JESUS? 

Who was His father and who His mother? 
What were His antecedents ? 

The Father "from whom are all things", the 
Creator "Whom no man hath seen nor can see, 



102 The Eternal Purpose 

who only hath immortality," CI Tim. 6:16), always 
had a manifestor. 

Men have taught that there are many, or at 
least several archangels; but the Bible only knows 
one— Michael. The translation of the word Michael 
into English, is, ''who as God." The translation 
of ''Archangel" is chief messenger, or angel that 
rules; that is, Michael, the archangel, is chief 
or ruling angel — "who as God." 

Through Moses, Jehovah commanded the He- 
brews, saying, "Behold I send an angel before thee 
to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee unto the 
place which I have prepared. Beware of Him, and 
obey His voice, provoke Him not, for He will not 
pardon your transgressions ; for my name is in Him. 
Ex. 23:20. "And the angel of His presence saved 
them." Isa. 63:9. "Then went up Moses and 
Aaron, Nabab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders 
of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel ; and under 
His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, 
and as it were the body of heaven in clearness." 
Ex. 24:10. 

It was not Him, "whom no man hath seen nor 
can see," "The invisible God," that they saw, but it 
was "the angel of His presence," who was sometimes 
visible to Moses and the elders. The angel in whom 
was the name of the invisible God. The Archangel 
Michael, that great Prince "who as God" stands 
for the people of God. Dan. 12 :1. 

In the New Testament it is Michael with His 
angels who prevails against the dragon and his 
angels. Rev. 12:7. And this also identifies Mi- 



The Reconciliation 103 

chael with Christ Jesus. For it is Jesus who des- 
stroys the works of Satan. Heb. 2 :14, 15. 

Of just the same significance is the term, *'The 
Word" as used by the Apostle John saying, **In the 
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with 
God, and the Word was (as) God. The same was in 
the beginning with God. All things were made by 
Him ; and without Him was not anything made that 
was made . . . and the Word was made flesh and 
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory 
as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and 
truth/' John. 1:1. That is. He was the spokesman 
**who as God" sometimes had appeared to men; 
and *'we beheld" His manifestations of the attri- 
butes of the Father, the invisible God. 

Paul says, Jesus Christ, "being in the form of 
God, thought it not robbery to be as God; but (on 
the other hand), made Himself of no reputation 
and took upon Him the form of a servant ; and being 
found in fashion as a man. He humbled Himself and 
became obedient unto death, even the death of 
the cross." Phil. 2:5-8. Thus in words as plain 
and unequivocal as it is possible for language to 
express historical facts, this person, Jesus, is desig- 
nated as the manifestor to men of the invisible 
God, the Father. 

The manner in which *'the Word was made flesh" 
is thus told by Luke, "The angel Gabriel was sent 
from God, unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 
to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was 
Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's 
name was Mary. And the angel said unto her, 



104 The Eternal Purpose 

Fear not Mary ; for thou hast found favor with God 
and behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and 
bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. 
He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the 
Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto Him 
the throne of His father David ; and He shall reign 
over the house of Jacob forever ; and of His kingdom 
there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the 
angel, How shall this be seeing I know not a man ? 
And the angel answered and said unto her. The 
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power 
of the highest shall overshadow thee^ therefore also, 
that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall 
be called the Son of God." Luke 1 :26. 

And Matthew says, ''Now all this was done that 
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the pro- 
phet saying. Behold a virgin shall be with child 
and shall bring forth a son and they shall call His 
name Emmanuel; which being interpreted is, God 
with us.'' 

From the beginning, before His incarnation, 
He was called by such various titles as described 
His work and His relation with the Father, as we 
have seen, The angel in whom is the name of 
Jehovah, The angel of his presence. The angel 
of the covenant. The captain of the hosts of the 
Lord, That great prince, Michael, the Word. 

He is called the Son of God only after He was 
born of a woman, and because He had no human 
father, as it is written, ''The Holy Ghost shall come 
upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall 
overshadow thee; therefore, also that holy thing 



The Reconciliation 1 05 

which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son 
of God." And in respect to His life in the flesh, 
He is often called the only begotten Son of God. For 
in the plan of Jehovah there never was, nor can be 
another. But it is important to remember that 
He was not yet ''the only begotten Son" in the begin- 
ning when God created the heavens and the earth. 

There can be no doubt that the Almighty God 
could have sent the Messiah as His manifestor 
in the flesh, in a body of flesh assumed or created 
on the spot, in the perfection of adult manhood, 
instead of by the process of gestation and birth and 
growth through infancy and childhood. This same 
person had so appeared, ''When Joshua was by 
Jericho he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold 
there stood a man over against him, with his sword 
drawn in his hand ; and Joshua went unto him 
and said unto him, Art thou for us or for our adver- 
saries? And he said. Nay, but as captain of the 
hosts of Jehovah, am I now come. And Joshua 
fell on his face to the earth and did worship, and 
said. What saith my Lord unto His servant?" 
Jos. 5:13. 

Here He appeared as a man, as is very definitely 
stated, and there are a number of cases given of 
the appearing of an angel in the form of a man, 
in a visible, tangible body, temporarily assumed. 

But an organism that could be taken on and 
put off by a spirit being, would not constitute that 
being one of us, 

Adam's body was created, not born of a woman ; 
but it was his permanent organism, it was himself, 



106 The Eternal Purpose 

only death could dissolve it. He had no life or 
being separate from it, it was all that he had. 

If the Messiah (Christ Jesus) had simply assumed 
a visible, tangible body, as He did when He appeared 
to Joshua, He would never have been one of us' 
He would have been as He was then, of an other 
race of beings altogether, and that, too, a race so 
superior to our race, that we never could have 
accepted the thought of His life being an example 
for us to follow. 

And then, too, in such an assumed body. His 
bearing our sickness and His death on the cross 
would have been a farce, a mere show, a make- 
believe. 

But there was no make-believe about Him, nor 
in anything He did, nor in anything that happened 
to Him. 

When He laid aside the glory that He had with 
the Father before the world was (John 17:5), when 
being in the form of God, He thought it not robbery 
to be as God ; but made Himself of no reputation 
and took upon Him the form of a servant and was 
made in the likeness of men. He ceased to be a 
spirit being, and became a human being, like Adam, 
**A living soul.'* He could not put aside His human 
organism; nothing but death could dissolve it. It 
was all that He had. He had become one of us. 

There is, indeed, mystery to us about a spirit 
being changing to a human being through birth, 
but not more mystery than the creation of a human 
organism and putting it on, as when He appeared 
to Joshua. 



The Reconciliation 107 

The change of the manifestor of God from a 
spirit being to a human being did not involve a 
death and resurrection as in the case of returning 
to the spirit life after the human life; but it was a 
voluntary passing down from a higher to a lower 
plane of life, the giving up of a greater and taking 
a less — a sacrifice. 

His whole human life was a sacrifice because 
it was on a lower plane than His former life, and 
because of the temptations and sufferings He 
endured which are inseparably incident to life 
in the flesh. 

He became a man in every sense of the word. 
He had the same desires and appetites of the flesh 
which Adam had, and indeed the same as any other 
man, excepting that He had no heredity of sin, 
for he was not a son of Adam; was not begotten 
of a man, though bom of a woman; therefore. 
His organs were not inflamed to abnormal desire, 
as in the case of the descendants of Adam. ''He 
was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without 
sin." Heb. 4:15. He was made perfect as our 
captain or leader, by the things He suffered, so 
that in Him we can see how to endure suffering. 
And by the same sufferings, He learned how dread- 
ful for us is the struggle against sin. Therefore 
He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities 
and is thereby made perfect or qualified, to be a 
merciful and faithful high priest in all things per- 
taining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins 
of the people, ''For in that He suffered, being 



108 The Eternal Purpose 

tempted, He is able to succor them that are 
tempted.'' Heb. 2:17. 

In setting forth the working plan for the recon- 
ciliation of sinners, the New Testament writers 
say very little about the teachings of Christ, and 
nothing about the examples of His life. These 
things are indeed much dwelt on in respect to living 
the Christian life ; for they are the daily food and 
drink for the disciples of Jesus, but in the work of 
winning sinners to the Lord, they pass these by 
and go straight to the end and say: ''When we 
were without strength, in due time, Christ died 
for the ungodly." 

Sometimes it is the cross of Christ as the instru- 
ment of His death, and sometimes it is the ''blood 
shed for the remission of sins," the shedding of 
which caused death. 

WHY HIS DEATH. 

There must have been absolute necessity for it; 
for the Father could not have permitted so dreadful 
a tragedy unless it had been from some reason, 
essential to the purpose. Death is ever the last 
resort. 

^ That necessity could not have been the mere 
fact that His death was foretold by the prophets 
and typified in the law of Moses ; for these Scriptures 
were only the recorded foresight of the things that 
had to be. The mere fulfillment of prophecy could 
not constitute the necessity for His death. Why 
then did it have to be? The answer seems to be 



The Reconciliation 109 

plain from Scriptures, that His death would bring 
about and accomplish a change of heart, and thereby 
a change of character in us, which absolutely nothing 
else would do. 

Kindness, a helping hand, and words that com- 
fort a suffering soul may prove the goodness and 
benevolence of the benefactor, but do not prove 
that he loves. Many generous deeds have been 
done in this w^orld by persons who had little or no 
love for the ones they helped. 

All the mighty deeds of kindness and all the 
gracious words spoken by Christ, as the manifestor 
of the divine character, proved the goodness, the 
benevolence and the mercy of God ; but that God 
loved suffering, sinful humanity yet remained un- 
proved. But it must be proved beyond the possi- 
bility of a doubt, or men could never truly know 
God. How could it be proved ? 

Jesus said, ''Greater love hath no man than 
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 
I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth 
His life for the sheep. And as Moses lifted up the 
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of 
man be lifted up. And I, if I be lifted up from 
the earth will draw all men unto me. This He said 
signifying what death He should die." John 10:11 ; 
3:14,12:32,33. 

That is it ; His death, so manifestly and so unjust- 
ly brought about by the wickedness of men, when 
held up in such way that men could see the motive 
and the true character of this victim, would prove 
His love to humanity, and the attractive power of 



1 1 The Eternal Purpose 

that love would draw all men unto Him. Not that 
all would actually come to Him, but all would be 
drawn. An object the attainment of which was 
to His mind worth the price He paid to obtain it. 

But in Christ Jesus, *'God was manifested in the 
flesh." All that Christ did was for the purpose of 
manifesting God to the comprehension of men. 
Therefore Paul says, God commendeth His love 
towards us, in that while we were yet sinners. 
Christ died for us." Rom. 5:8. And that is the 
method which the wisdom of God determined upon, 
to convince us that He loves us. 

We can plainly see that the plan is founded upon 
the mental and spiritual constitution of man, which 
is the image and likeness of God, namely, that His 
love to us, when discerned by us, would most strongly 
draw our hearts, and in its normal action would beget 
in us love to Him. The plan must therefore work 
to the satisfaction of the Creator. 

And since this gospel was first proclaimed, 
the plan has proved effectual with many souls; 
with all, indeed, who having heard the gospel 
have withdrawn their hearts and a sufficient amount 
of their time from the affairs of this world, and have 
given earnest, honest attention to the subject; 
as Paul says, **We were reconciled to God by the 
death of His Son. And you that were alienated 
and sinners in your mind by wicked works, yet 
now hath He reconciled, in the body of His flesh, 
through deaths to present you holy and unblamable 
and unreprovable in His sight." Rom. 5:10; Col. 
1 :21, 22. 



The ReconciliatioH 1 1 1 

As \ve know ourselves, only love, deep, absorbing 
love for the Creator and Redeemer, could bring 
and keep us in that state of mind and heart, which, 
in His sight could be called holy, unblamable and 
unreprovable. 

An incident, romantic if true, has been published 
which seems to fairly illustrate the true principles 
of the death of Christ, dying for us, and its effect 
onus. 

As the story goes, a company of young folks 
went on a picnic to a pretty place in a mountain 
gulch. On one side ran a brook, on the other 
was a dry channel through which water ran only 
at flood time. Suddenly they were startled by the 
discovery that they were entirely surrounded by 
water. On either side, between them and higher 
ground, was a rushing torrent already too deep 
and rapid to wade. In a moment they knew their 
situation. A ''cloud burst," far up the mountains, 
was sending its deluge down on them. To remain 
where they were was sure and quick death; only 
one chance for life was before them; a large tree 
had fallen across the channel on one side ; for it they 
ran and scrambled over. All crossed safely but 
one girl, she was the belle of the village and had 
many suitors. She slipped from the log, falling 
into the mad waters; instantly she was whirled 
away. All were appalled. Her suitors stood aghast 
excepting one young man whose attentions she 
had never deigned to notice. Without an instant's 
delay, he plunged into the swirling tide, which 
carried him with her. Being a strong swimmer 



1 1 2 The Eternal Purpose 

he reached her and held her up until the eddying 
current threw them against the bank and they 
were rescued. Afterward she listened to his story; 
it was because he so loved her that he gave himself 
for her, casting himself into the very clutch of death 
to get her out. She realized that she owed her life 
and all to him; she believed the evidences of his 
love; it filled her woman heart; he had given him- 
self for her; she gave herself to him. 

He did not go into the whirlpool of death instead 
of her, he went in for her, where she was, and by his 
power he was able to accomplish his purpose. He 
placed himself in her condition in order to get her 
out because he loved her, and thereby won her abid- 
ing admiration and love. 

If he had not plunged into the stream of death 
where she was, but had dragged her out with a 
long pole and hook, she might have thanked him; 
but such service would not have won either her 
admiration or love; for a mere hireling might have 
done that. He ''bought" her love by doing that 
which proved that he loved her. He paid the price 
in the dreadful risk to his own life. But that price 
was not exchangeable goods. It was not a com- 
mercial transaction. 

The human race is nearly all in the grave; 
all are in the sure grip of death. For the Almighty 
to take us out of the grave by an act of His power 
at long range could not affect our hearts beyond a 
mere "Thank you." If it cost Him nothing, the 
easy reaching out of His mighty strength and taking 
us out of the hand of death which sin had fastened 



The Reconciliation 1 1 3 

upon lis and giving us the resurrection to life, would 
not be evidence that He loved us ; and so winsome- 
ness, the drawing element, would be lacking and our 
hearts would not be attracted to love Him. 

''But God commendeth His love toward us, 
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for 
us." That is, he exhibited and proved His love 
toward us, by the death of Christ. And says the 
Apostle, ''Hereby perceive we the love, because He 
laid doivn His life for us. And we love Him because 
He first loved us." Rom. 5:8; 1 John 3:16; 4:19. 

It is then evident, as the Apostle says, that we 
could not perceive the love of God toward us, if 
Christ had not laid down His life for us, going into 
the grave with us. 

If we could not perceive the love, we could not 
know God, beyond the facts of ''His power and God- 
head," as revealed in nature. Rom. 1 :19, 20. Not 
knowing Him, we could not love Him; not loving 
Him, we could not form our character to become 
just like Him; not being like Him, we could not 
be His children; we could not be "heirs of God and 
joint heirs of Jesus Christ." We could not be 
"the family of God," and "the tabernacle of God 
with men" could never be. 

Is it not then plain, that in very deed, "It 
behooved Christ to suffer?" Now, that is not a 
theory; it is the reason, actually assigned in the 
word of God, for the necessity of the death of Christ 
and no other reason is assigned. Mark this, no 
other reason is anywhere assigned. 

There is no part of the consequences and penalty 



1 1 4 The Eternal Purpose 

of sin which Jesus did not endure. It was the Fath- 
er's wisdom that the enemy should be permitted 
to assault Him with every form of malignity with 
which He could assault any soul. And in the day 
of final accounts, no soul will be found to have been 
tried beyond what He endured, as it is written, 
**A11 we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned 
every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid 
on Him the iniquity of us all." That is, the Lord 
hath laid on Him the consequences of the iniquity 
of all of us, just as He laid it on us. 

When the Lord laid on Him the burden of 
suffering the consequences of sin and enduring 
the wickedness of sinners, He did not remove that 
burden from us who are the sinners. 

Jesus did not suffer and die instead of us; for 
we continue to suffer and die all the same ; but He 
suffered and died with us, and for us ; all for the 
effect it would have on us, as says the scriptures, 
* 'Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the 
unjust, that he might bring us to God,'' 1 Pet. 3:18. 
That is, that He might get us to come to God of our 
own free will, by showing us how God loves us. 



Animal Sacrifices 1 1 5 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ANIMAL SACRIFICES. 

The idea of animal sacrifices on account of 
sin, doubtless, descended to all races and nations 
of people from the first parents of the human 
family, who evidently at the beginning were instruct- 
ed as to making them. 

Abel offered animal sacrifices, and so did Noah, 
which were acceptable to the Lord. They could not 
have been acceptable if they had not been the work 
of faith, for, ** Without faith no man can please 
God." And nothing can be a work of faith except- 
ing that which is done because God has appointed 
it to be done. And then to be acceptable, it must be 
done in the belief that He is good and faithful to 
keep His promises, and that His favor attends the 
observance of all things which He has ordained. 

The outward form of offering sacrifices, with 
some variations, was quite universally retained, 
but the spirit of it was wholly lost and the meaning 
perverted by all nations. 

The religion of the Greeks, as indeed all heathen 
religions, was founded on the idea that punishments 
due for sin might be compounded with the offended 
deities, by means of sacrifices, that the gods would 
accept the life of a beast, if all or parts of its body 
were burned with proper ceremony, instead of 



1 1 6 The Eternal Purpose 

punishment due to the actual sinner. Single beasts 
and hecatombs were sacrificed in the belief that the 
deity would be satisfied, his wrath appeased and 
his favor obtained by the flowing blood and burning 
fat of animals. And that was, in their minds, the 
true significance of their sacrifices, and on that 
their hope of divine favor rested. 

It was substitutional atonement pure and simple, 
a substitute instead of the sinner. 

The sacrifices offered by the Israelites were on 
a different basis. The action was indeed similar, 
but the number of victims was limited by law and 
was inexpensive, when compared with the hecatombs 
of the heathen. 

It seems, however, that the intention of the 
people of Israel — that is, the meaning which they 
put upon the action of the sacrifice — became in 
time degraded to the low and false level of the 
heathen conception, namely, that atonement inhered 
in a substitute. And like the heathen from such 
a gross error they came inevitably to reckon the 
effectiveness of the offering in proportion to its 
costliness. For indeed, that is a conclusion forever 
inseparable from the idea of substitutional atone- 
ment and so they came to offering a large number 
of animals at their sacrifices, supposing that the 
greater number would be yet more satisfying to 
Jehovah than the one beast only, which He had 
appointed in the law. 

And it was not the sacrifices which v/ere appointed 
in the law; but it was this low, heathen conception, 
and the consequent multiplication and additions of 



Animal Sacrifices 1 1 7 

sacrifices that was so sharply rebuked by the pro- 
phet, saying, "To what purpose is the inultitude 
of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord. I am 
full of your burnt offerings and the fat of beasts, 
and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of 
lambs, or of he goats. When you come to appear 
before me, who hath required this at your hands 
to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblation, 
incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons 
and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I can not, 
away with, it is iniquity, even the solemn meetings. 
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my 
soul hateth, they are a trouble unto me, I am 
weary to bear them. And when you spread forth 
your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; Yea 
when you make many prayers, I will not hear; 
your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you 
clean; put away the evil of your doings from before 
mine eyes, cease to do evil; learn to do well, seek 
judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, 
plead for the widow. Come now, let us reason 
together, saith the Lord, though your sins were as 
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they 
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isa. 
1:10-18. 

The utter uselessness of sacrifices, even of things 
most precious to the human heart and of priceless 
value, for averting punishment or obtaining the 
favor of Jehovah, is strongly taught by the prophets. 
In other words, value, though infinite, is not an 
element in that offering which is acceptable and a 
sweet savor unto the Lord ; as it is written, ''Where- 



1 1 8 The Eternal Purpose 

with shall I come before the Lord and bow down 
before the high God? Shall I come before Him 
with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? 
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or 
with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my 
first bom for my tra:.sgression, or the fruit of my 
body for the sin of my soul?" None of that will 
answer. What then shall be done in order to come 
acceptably before the Lord? **He hath showed 
thee, O man, what is good ; and what doth the Lord 
require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, 
and to walk humbly with thy God." Micah. 6:6-8. 

The Psalmist also testifies, "O Lord, open thou 
my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. 
For thou desirest not sacrifices, else would I give it ; 
thou delightest not in burnt offerings. The sacri- 
fices of God are a broken and contrite spirit; a 
broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not 
despise." Ps. 51:15-17. 

And these words of the prophets and the Psalm- 
ist, are the divinely-inspired definition of the 
Mosaic sacrifices. They were not expiatory in any 
degree. That is a purely heathen definition attached 
to them by men. But the constant teaching of the 
Holy Scriptures is that no sacrifice of any character 
or value can be balanced against sin. 

Whatever else, therefore, the sacrifices of the 
Old Testament may signify, they do not signify 
that sin is forgiven or that divine favor is obtained 
through the substitution of an innocent victim 
suffering instead of the guilty. Nothing but a 
changed spirit, a changed and penitent heart which 



Animal Sacrifices 1 1 9 

says *'Lo, I come to do thy will, O God," can avail 
to obtain the favor of God. But by that offering 
and that alone, the Lord is propitiated and His 
anger is turned away from the guilty one. 

This is put strongly and clearly in the epistle 
to the Hebrews, in which it is positively affirmed 
that conformity of the heart to the will of God is the 
sole ground of acceptance with Him. And this, 
it is shown, was true of Jesus the forerunner, 
as also of every^ one who will be His follower; as 
it is w^ritten of Jesus, "When He cometh into the 
world, He saith, sacrifice and offering thou wouldst 
not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt 
offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no 
pleasure ; then said I, Lo I come, in the volume of 
the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. 
Above, when He said, sacrifice and offering even 
burnt offerings for sin thou wouldst not; neither 
hadst pleasure therein, which are offered by the 
law, then said He, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God 
He taketh away the first (sacrifices), that He may 
establish the second (to do His will). By the (doing 
of) which will we are sanctified (set apart) through 
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once — for 
by one offering He hath perfected forever, them that 
are sanctified. The Holy Ghost is a witness to us, 
for after He had said before. This is the covenant 
that I will make with them after those days, saith 
the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts 
and in their minds will I write them, and their sins 
and iniquities I will remember no more." Heb. 
10:5:17. 



120 The Eternal Purpose 

Here the Apostle shows that the first way of 
approaching God outwardly, through offerings and 
sacrifices that were only types through which we 
might learn and understand the real or true way, 
was abolished, after it had, by types, accomplished 
its purpose, and then the new and true way, namely, 
to do His will just as Jesus did it, while in the flesh, 
being made clear to our understanding, we hence- 
forth should not make any other offering unto the 
Lord than that of a broken spirit, a broken and 
contrite heart, and present our bodies a living sacri- 
fice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reason- 
able service, as did Jesus, in whose heart and mind 
the law of God (loving obedience) was written; 
as it is also written in the heart and mind of every 
one who follows Jesus by faith and love. 

And it was the obedience of Jesus, even to the 
surrendering of Himself to death, the dreadful 
death of the cross, that "has perfected forever 
(for all time) them that are sanctified." Vs. 14. 
Because thereby they see clearly that it is by like 
loving obedience only, that they too, can enter 
with Jesus into the holiest. Vs. 19. 

THE MEANING OF ANIMAI^ SACRIFICES UNDER 
THE I.AW. 

Putting away from our minds then that inter- 
pretation of animal sacrifices, which "the heathen 
in his blindness" was only able to conceive of them, 
let us come to the Scriptures of God, and learn 
from His word, for "God is His own interpreter." 



Animal Sacrifices 121 

The Apostle says, *'In those sacrifices there is a 
remembrance again made of sin, every year." 
Heb. 10:3. That is to say, the dreadful fact that 
death, with all its attending anguish, came by sin. 
"For the wages of sin is death" was, by these sacri- 
fices, continually brought before the eyes of the 
sacrificers. As we have already seen, our inheritance 
from our first ancestors is an organism polluted 
with sin. 

Says the Psalmist, '* Behold I was shapen in 
iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." 
Ps. 51 :5. And out of his own sad experience the 
Apostle Paul sets forth the fearful grip which sin 
now has on all our members; he says, "I am carnal, 
sold under sin. For that which I do, I would not; 
for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, 
that I do. For that I know that in me, that is 
in 77iy flesh, dwelleth no good ; for to will is present 
with me, but to perform that which is good, I 
find not. For the good that I would I do not; 
but the evil which I would not, that I do. I find 
then a law that when I would do good, evil is present 
with me. For I delight in the law of God after the 
inward man; but I see another law in my members, 
warring against the law of my mind and bringing 
it into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my 
members.''' Rom. 7. And he exhorts us by saying, 
"Mortify (put to death) therefore your members 
which are upon the earth." Col. 3:5. "For if ye 
live after the flesh ye shall die; but if ye, through 
the spirit, do mortify (put to death) the deeds 
of the body, ye shall live." Rom. 8:13. "For the 



122 The Eternal Purpose 

flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against 
the flesh, and these are contrary one to the other, 
so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are 
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variances, emulations, 
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, 
drunkenness, revellings and such like, of which I 
tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, 
that they who do such things cannot inherit the 
kingdom of God — and they that are Christ's have 
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.'' 
Gal. 5:17-24. 

In these words and very many more of the same 
import does the New Testament show it absolutely 
necessary that the dominion of the appetites and 
desires of the flesh, which always war against the 
spirit, shall be destroyed. And that work of 
destruction must be accomplished from beginning 
to finish, by each soul for himself y crying unto God 
for help. 

The same was prefigured by the types in the 
law of Moses. When an Israelite had done some- 
thing contrary to the commandments of God, he 
brought an animal, such as was designated in the 
law for a case like his, and having laid his hand 
upon his head, he killed it, and dividing its members, 
he delivered the parts to the priest to be dealt 
with according to the specifications of the law. 
See Lev., chapters 4, 5 and 6 to vs. 7. 

The laying of the sacrificer's hand on the head 
of the beast did not signify that the beast was to 



Animal Sacrifices 123 

die as his substitute. That interpretation which 
has been quite prevalent arose wholly from a 
heedless following of the heathen idea, and has 
come down to us through the Romish Church. 
There is in the Bible one case, and only one, in 
which a beast was killed in sacrifice as the substi- 
tute of a man. That is the case of Isaac, whom 
his father Abraham was commanded to offer as 
a burnt sacrifice unto the Lord. But before the 
deed was consummated a ram was put *'in the stead 
of* Isaac. Not for Isaac, but instead of him. 
Otherwise Isaac himself would have been slain on 
the spot, and his body burned, as God at first com- 
manded Abraham to do. See Gen., chapter 22. 

In all other scriptures where there is any desig- 
nation made, the word for is used, not the words 
instead of. See Lev. 9:8; 16:6. 

And in the Hebrew language, these words are 
just as distinct and definite as in the English A. V. 
The difference between the words is world wide. 
*' Instead of" means a substitute; "for'' means a 
representative. And the animal that was offered 
in sacrifice represented the flesh, the animal nature 
of the offerer, ''which lusteth against the spirit'' 
and which, by its appetites, brought about the act 
of sin. Its dominion must therefore be put to 
death. *'For they that are Christ's have crucified 
the flesh with the affections and lusts." 

When, therefore, the offerer laid his hand upon 
the head of the beast it was as if he said. This 
animal is myself; it represents my animal nature, 
my flesh, which lusteth against my spirit, and by its 



124 The Eternal Purpose 

desires and abnormal appetites, strongly tempts me 
to excesses and ma.ny sins, on which account I con- 
demn it to death; and as I slay this beast "before 
the Lord," I covenant with my God that I likewise 
condemn to death those works of the flesh which 
are sin against Him, and that I will hereafter "keep 
my body under" and put to death the evil motions 
of my flesh. 

In the gospel dispensation the same death of 
the body of sin is typified by the burial in baptism ; 
but baptism goes further and typifies also the 
resurrection. See Rom. 6; Col. 2:12, 13. 

In all offerings for sin, the fat and the kidneys 
only were burned on the altar. The flesh of the 
offering for sin, made by all the common people and 
the rulers, was given to the priests as their portion, 
and they ate it in the Court of the Tabernacle, 
as it is written, "The priest that offereth it for 
sin, shall eat it; in the holy place shall it be eaten, 
in the Court of the Tabernacle of the congregation — 
all the males among the priests shall eat thereof; 
it is most holy. ' ' Lev. 6 :26-29. 

But if a priest should sin, or if the whole congre- 
gation of the people should sin, the flesh of the sin- 
offering brought in such cases was not eaten, but 
was carried outside of the camp and burnt, while 
some of the blood was taken into the tabernacle 
where the officiating priest dipped his fingers in it 
and sprinkled it "Seven times before the Lord, 
before the vail of the sanctuary." Lev. 4:6.. And 
on the great da}^ of atonement the high priest took 
of the blood and sprinkled it upon the mercy seat 



Animal Sacrifices 1 25 

eastward, and before the mercy seat seven times. 
Lev. 16:14. 

Of these sacrifices the law was, ''No sin-offering 
whereof any of the blood is brought into the taber- 
nacle of the congregation, to reconcile with all in 
the holy place, shall be eaten. It shall be burnt 
with fire." Lev. 6:30. And this sacrifice, the blood 
of which was sprinkeld before the mercy seat by the 
high priest, typified not the individual sinner return- 
ing to the Lord and putting to death the body of sin ; 
but it was typical of the death of Christ, as the 
Apostle says, "We have an altar whereof they have 
no right to eat, which serve at the tabernacle. 
For the bodies of those beasts whose blood was 
brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, 
are burned without the -camp. Wherefore Jesus 
also, that He might sanctify the people with His 
own blood, suffered without the gate." Heb. 13 :10- 
13. In the ninth chapter the Apostle says, "The 
priest went always into the first tabernacle, accom- 
plishing the service, but into the second went the 
high priest alone once a year, not without blood, 
which he offered for himself and the errors of the 
people. — But Christ being come, an high priest of 
good things to come by a greater and more perfect 
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not 
of this building ; neither by the blood of goats and 
calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once 
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemp- 
tion. — Almost all things are by the lav/ purged with 
blood, and without the shedding of blood is no 
remission. It was therefore necessary that the 



126 The Eternal Purpose 

pattern of things in the heavens should be purified 
with these but, the heavenly things themselves, 
with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not 
entered into the holy places made with hands, the 
figure of the true, but into heaven itself, now to 
appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet that 
He should offer Himself often, as the high priest 
entereth into the holy place every year with the 
blood of others, for then must He often have suffered 
since the foundation of the world ; but now once in 
the end of the world hath He appeared to put away 
sin by the sacrifice of Himself.'' 

The allusion in these passages is to the sacrifice 
of the bullock on ''The day of atonement.'' See the 
16th chapter of Lev. And the apostle shows that 
the high priest (Aaron) and the bullock together 
are for one person, typifying Jesus Christ as the 
true high priest, dying a sacrifice "for the errors 
of the people." Christ Jesus Himself being both 
high priest and sacrifice. Aaron, as high priest, 
was a type of Christ; the bullock which he offered 
was **for himself," that is, it represented the high 
priest, Aaron, dying a sacrifice "for the errors of 
the people" as a type of Christ, who should be 
wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our 
iniquities — cut off out of the land of the living," 
and "die for our sins, according to the Scriptures." 
Aaron, the high priest, on the great day of atone- 
ment, going into the most holy place and presenting 
the blood of the bullock, and sprinkling it upon 
the mercy seat, typified Christ entering by His own 



Animal Sacrifices 127 

blood *'into heaven itself, now to appear in the 
presence of God for us." 

The other sacrifices for sin on the day of atone- 
ment did not relate immediately to Christ, but 
to the people. The two goats which were given 
by the people, signified the two families of Israel, 
the spiritual and the fleshly. The spiritual family 
would follow Christ, the fleshly family would not. 
Men cannot tell, cannot discern correctly, who are 
spiritual, so it must be left for God to determine. 
Therefore lots were cast on the two goats that He 
might thereby signify which would follow Christ. 
The goat on which the lot for the Lord fell typified 
"the children of Abraham by faith." Rom 4:11-16; 
and it followed the bullock in sacrifice in every par- 
ticular. Heb. 13:13. The other goat, azazal, the 
scape goat, typified the children of Abraham accord- 
ing to the flesh, the Jews, who would not receive 
nor follow Christ. That goat was turned loose in 
the wilderness, where it was liable to all the distress 
with which wild beast? could harass it. A type of 
fleshly Israel cast off by the Lord, without a national 
home, wandering among all the nations of the earth, 
a prey to the wild beast nature of all, until He, 
whom they had rejected as sin bearer, shall again 
come, not as a sacrifice for sin, but in glory and 
great power; then they will believe and repent and 
receive Him. 

THE WHOLE BURNT OFl^ERING. 

The whole burnt offering was so called because 



128 The Eternal Purpose 

the whole body of the animal, excepting the skin, 
was burned upon the altar. The offerer brought 
the offering to "the door of the tabernacle of the 
congregation before the Lord." There he put his 
hand upon the head of the animal and it was "ac- 
cepted for him.'' Then he himself killed it "before 
the Lord/' and the priest (not the high priest) 
sprinkled some of the blood round about the altar. 
Then the offerer took off the skin and cut the body 
into pieces and washed the inwards and legs in 
water, but the head and feet were not washed. 
Then the priest put the whole body on the altar 
and burned it with a fire of wood, until it was con- 
sumed. ''It was a burnt sacrifice, an offering made 
by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord." Lev. 1. 

When the offerer placed his hand on the head 
of the animal it was "accepted for him.'' It repre- 
sented himself, his whole life with all his powers, 
which he placed upon the altar of the Lord's service, 
to remain there until entirely consumed in doing the 
will of God. "An offering of a sweet savour unto 
the Lord." 

It was a type, in the law, of that utter renuncia- 
tion of self-interests and desires, and placing one's 
whole life into the hands of God, henceforth to 
labor and be consumed in His service, a dedication 
which every disciple of Jesus must make and carry 
out, "faithful unto the end," if he wins the crown. 
It is what Jesus meant when He said, "If any man 
will come after Me, let him deny himself and take 
up his cross and follow Me." 

The skin was not placed on the altar, it did not 



Animal Sacrifices 129 

enter into the whole burnt offering that was ''a 
sweet savour unto the Lord." It represented the 
external things, that which, is visible and tangible to 
the world, such as wealth, honors and emoluments, 
all of which are of the world, and cannot be made 
a present to the Creator, for "The earth is the Lord's 
and the fullness thereof." Neither could honey 
be offered upon the altar of God (Lev. 2:11), for that 
represented the sensational enjoyments of the 
flesh, and the pleasures of the world may not be 
joined with the service of the Saviour. Nor could 
leaven be offered, for that typified those ways 
of their own, the inventions which men are prone 
to mix in with the Lord's ways to make the whole 
more agreeable to "the natural man," the "carnal 
mind," more in accordance with the "business 
methods" of the world. But the head and the fat 
representing the mental and spiritual qualities, 
acquired under the blessing of God, and the flesh and 
bones and intestines, all of which represented "the 
inner man," "the hidden man of the heart," that 
was accepted; "an offering of a sweet savour unto 
God." "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; 
a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not 
despise." Ps. 51:17. 



130 The Eternal Purpose 



CHAPTER IX. 

PROPITIATION. 

The Greek language, in which the New Testament 
Scriptures have come down to us, was the language 
of a heathen people, and its words expressed heathen 
ideas. It is therefore of the greatest importance, 
in translating them into our language, to be very 
sure whether a literal rendering according to the 
common heathen usage of the language fully agrees 
with the whole teachings of the Holy Scriptures, 
or whether any certain word as used by the apostles, 
must be rendered in a sense somewhat different 
from the usual heathen meaning; for whatever the 
word, the sense it conveys, as intended by the 
apostles, must agree with the character of the true 
God, as set forth by Moses and the prophets, and 
Jesus Christ and the apostles, or it will convey a 
false doctrine — a doctrine entirely different from 
that which the writers intended to convey. 

The revealed character of the Creator is the 
immovable foundation of all revealed truth, and 
the unchanging standard to which all interpretation 
must conform without spot or wrinkle. Any doc- 
trine or interpretation which contradicts, or in 
any degree strains the plainly revealed attributes 
of God, is error; and to promote such error is to 
misrepresent the divine character ; and to misrepre- 



Propitiation 1 3 1 

sent the divine character is, in the Bible, called 
blasphemy. If done in ignorance, but with a right 
heart, the fault may be condoned; but if persisted 
in after ignorance is removed, it is sin. And ** who- 
soever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known 
Him,'' 1 John 3 :6. It is a fearful thing to blaspheme 
God. 

The word propitiation means, by the English 
dictionary, ''The act of appeasing the wrath and 
conciliating the favor of an offended person/' 
And that is also substantially the definition of the 
heathen Latin word propitiatio, from which it 
comes. It is used in the English New Testament, 
as the translation of the Greek word hilasmos, which 
occurs but twice in the New Testament, namely in 
John 2 :2 and 4 :10, and is a fair rendering, according 
to the common usage of that word in heathen Greek 
literature. The meaning is the same in both texts. 
— The first reads as follows: "If any sin we have 
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the 
righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins, 
and not for ours only, but also for the whole world." 

According to the heathen conception, these words 
of the Apostle would mean that God the Father, 
was angry and unrelenting toward the one that 
had sinned ; but that Jesus, more merciful than the 
Father, assumed the position of the sinner's friend 
and plead with the Father to have mercy, and that 
He appeased the divine wrath and saved the sinner 
from the penalty. 

That is truly the literal meaning according to 
the ancient heathen idea. And that idea is the 



132 The Eternal Purpose 

interpretation which has come down to us through 
the Romish Church; and it is one of the chief 
foundation stones of Romish saint worship, which 
calls upon the supposed saints of past ages to inter- 
cede for sinners, and procure, if possible, the leniency 
of God in their behalf. And it is expressed in 
several Protestant confessions of faith in words 
like these, **Who (Christ) truly suffered, was cruci- 
fied, dead and buried, to reconcile His Father ions.'' 
It also bursts out in some of the Protestant hymns 
as in this : 

"Five bleeding wounds he bears. 
Received on Calvary; 

They pour effectual prayers. 
They strongly plead for me ; 

Forgive him, O forgive, they cry, 

Nor let that ransomed sinner die." 

But such is an exact reversal of all the state- 
ments and all the teachings of the Bible which say: 
**A11 things are of God, who hath reconciled us 
to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the 
ministry of reconciliation; to-wit, that God was in 
Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Cor. 
5:18,19. God is His own interpreter, and His Holy 
Scriptures can only be correctly understood when 
the received sense is in perfect agreement with 
"the analogy of the faith." And here are a few 
of the passages which establish the faith, and in 
analogy with which every interpretation must stand 
true: "God commendeth His love towards us in 
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 



Propitiation 1 33 

Again, ''In this was manifested the love of God 
toward us, because God sent his only begotten Son 
into the world, that we might live through Him." 
And again, "God so loved the world that He gave His 
only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him 
might not perish, but have everlasting life." 

Surely, then, no change of feelings toward 
humanity was needed in God. He did not have to 
be propitiated, appeased nor coaxed to be merciful, 
nor to be reconciled. That would be impossible, 
for God cannot be reconciled to sin, nor to any one 
who is continuing in sin. It is man that has turned 
from God, and become mad, and he only, therefore, 
is the one to become reconciled. And in these 
Scriptures Christ is not represented as our advocate 
to the Father, to appease His wrath and avert 
punishment from the sinner, by submitting to 
endure it in the guilty one's stead, but "He is our 
advocate with the Father.'' "A laborer together 
with God" in the work of turning us from our evil 
course and bringing us back to loving harmony 
with the Father. And when a soul is tired of sin 
and turns unto God in the name of Jesus Christ, 
then, like the prodigal son, he is received as in 
open arms, for "A broken spirit, a broken and contrite 
heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." 

And it was to emphasize the fact that repentance 
must be in the name of Jesus Christ, that the Apostle 
used the word propitiation, saying: "He is the 
propitiation for our sins." No amount of professed 
or apparent repentance will avail a sinner anything 
who leaves out the name of Jesus Christ, who 



134 The Eternal Purpose 

attempts to come unto God by some other way 
than that of following Jesus. *'For there is none 
other name under heaven given among men, whereby 
we may be saved." Acts 4:12. And as Jesus 
said, *'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." 
John 14 :6. The Father cannot receive, cannot pos- 
sibly receive, on any other terms; because in Jesus 
alone, ''The fullness of the Godhead (divine nature) 
dwells bodily." Col. 2 :9. ''For it pleased the Father 
that in Him should all fullness dwell." Col. 1:19. 
"And He is the express image of His person." 
Heb. 1 :3. Therefore He is the one, and the only 
oncy who can rightly and fully manifest God to us, 
that we may know how to return unto Him in an 
acceptable manner. Jesus is therefore "The Cap- 
tain of our salvation" (Heb. 2:10), to lead us to 
God. 

As a man, throughout His whole life in the flesh, 
the broken spirit and the contrite heart towards 
God were manifested to absolute perfection by 
Jesus. He is then the standard by which shall be 
measured the spirituality of every mind, and the 
contrition of every heart. And though owing to 
weakness, on account of our de»praved inheritance, 
it is not possible for us to maintain that unbroken 
manifestation, in the sight of meny of the broken 
spirit and contrite heart toward God which Jesus 
maintained ; yet is it possible in the sight of God : 
for "He knoweth our frame. He remembereth that 
we are dust." And He that looketh not at the 
outside, but at the heart, is propitiated, and His 
mercy is extended when He sees the likeness of 



The Meeting Place 135 

Jesus in the spirit and heart of the penitent sinner. 
And that is what the Apostle meant when he said : 
**He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for 
ours only, but also for the whole world." 

THE MEETING PLACE. 

A compound of the word hilasmos, the word 
hilasteerion occurs twice in the New Testament 
Greek, It is the word constantly used in the Greek 
version of the Old Testament (LXX) to translate 
the Hebrew word kah-poh-reth, which, in the Hebrew 
Bible, designates the lid, or cover, of the ark of 
the covenant, and which in the English A. V. is 
constantly rendered mercy seat 

That cover was of pure gold and solid. It was 
the place appointed by the Lord, where He would 
meet and commune with man, as it is written, 
* 'There will I meet with thee and I will commune 
with thee from above the mercy seat.'' Ex. 25:22. 

In the Greek of the New Testament, this word 
hilasteerion occurs twice, and no more. In Heb. 9 :5, 
A. v., it is translated mercy seat, same as in the 
Old Testament; but in Rom. 3:25, it is rendered 
propitation. But that is an awkward, careless, 
utterly incorrect rendering; for in Greek, it never 
means propitiation, but the place where a propitia- 
tion may be made, and as the translation of the 
Hebrew kah-poh-reth, it can mean nothing but the 
place of reconciliation; the place where God meets 
with man and communes with him. 

It is very manifest that the Apostle Paul got 



136 The Eternal Purpose 

the word from the LXX, and that he used it in the 
same sense only as there used. But Paul applies 
it to Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is the mercy 
seat, the meeting place. And so this word of the 
text, both by Greek usage, and by the usage of 
the Holy Scriptures, and by *'the analogy of the 
faith'' correctly reads, ''Christ Jesus, whom God 
hath set forth the meeting place, through faith in 
His blood, to declare .His righteousness for the 
forgiveness of sins that are past, through the for- 
bearance of God." 

In these words is an epitome of the whole doc- 
trine of salvation through Christ — *'God was in 
Christ Jesus, reconciling the world unto Himself.'' 
And ' 'whosoever believes with the heart' ' (Rom. 10:10) 
that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God," 
has come unto Christ by faith and love; there he 
meets with God, communes with Him, and receives 
power to become a son of God. 

RKDKMPTION. 

It means bought hack. That which was once 
the rightful property of a person, has, by some means, 
come into the possession and control of another, 
and redemption is the getting it back into the hands 
of the original owner, by giving such compensation, 
called a ransom, that the holder shall be willing 
to surrender possession and control, acknowledging 
thereafter the right of the original owner. 

It is illustrated in the law of Moses under which, 
if a man, from any reason whatever, sold himself 



Redemption 1 37 

to be a bond sei-vant of another, a near kinsman 
might redeem him, by paying the ransom for him, 
and then he became a free man; not the bond ser- 
vant of the near kinsman who paid the price of 
his redemption. If he gave service to the one 
who redeemed him, it was of his own free will, 
no law compelled him; that redemption made him 
free from all forced service, and whether he would 
render service to his redeemer, in consideration of 
the benefit he had received, was a question of 
gratitude which his own heart must determine. 

By creation we are the rightful property of 
our Creator. To do His will is the only rightful 
employment of our existence. But by careless- 
ness, self-willedness and self-indulgence, we have 
become bond servants to the lusts of the flesh. 
"All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have 
turned, every one, to his own way." We have 
taken ourselves from our rightful owner and sover- 
eign, and have assumed control of ourselves, and 
have entered the service of our own lusts and so 
brought ourselves under the curse of that inexor- 
able law, ''The soul that sinneth it shall die." 

But our near kinsman, one of our race, ''Christ, 
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law." 
He paid the price that was necessary to induce us 
to turn from the service of our own ways, returning 
to God in Christ, and so become free from sin and 
the consequent law of death — a law which other- 
wise would have held us eternally in the grave, 
for the sins that are passed; because it would not 
have been worth while to take the sinners out 



138 The Eternal Purpose 

of the grave, if the strongest means to win them 
away from the ways of sin, and induce them to 
love God and walk in his ways, had not been taken. 
But that means was taken. The death of Christ 
is competent to draw all men unto Him. There- 
fore, a respite is provided for all mankind by the 
resurrection from death. And it is because this 
* 'ransom (Gr. antilutron) for all" Christ's death, is 
equal to the accomplishment of its purpose, which 
is to prove to all mankind the goodness and love 
of God, by which all men may be drawn to love 
and obey Him, that it is worth while to take all 
out of the grave again so that all may have one 
perfect, equal chance to know God and Jesus Christ 
whom He has sent, whom to know truly is the 
first condition necessary to eternal life. John 17:3. 
But redemption does not of itself render a 
soul immune from the power of death, the second 
death, it only sets God's love in full view before us, 
and makes us to see what despicable creatures 
we have become by sin, not to love Him, and give 
ourselves wholly to His rightful sovereignty. 
Therefore the second condition of our having eternal 
life is, that with gratitude and of our own volition, 
we return our allegiance to our Redeemer, whenever 
we come to know of our redemption, and refusing 
any more to serve our own lusts, become body, 
soul and spirit servants of God, then God turns 
His uplifting, upholding power to us and we are 
saved from sin indeed. And if saved from sin, 
we are saved from the power of death, the second 



Redemption 1 39 

death, for '*the sting of death is sin." Sin is the 
fang of the serpent that sends all to the grave. 

There are two words used by the apostles in 
the Greek New Testament which, together, clearly 
set forth the redemption. One of them, lutroo, is 
the Greek equivalent of our word redeem : the other, 
agorazo, means simply to buy, to purchase in the 
open market. But the apostles used it that they 
might more fully express the fact of rightful owner- 
ship vested in Jesus Christ, the one who paid the 
price of our redemption ; for ownership is a meaning 
inherent in that word, but not at all contained in 
the other word, lutroo. For if one was redeemed, 
(lutroo,) from bondage, he was then entirely free 
to do what he pleased; he was his own master, 
no matter who paid the ransom; but if he was 
bought, purchased, (agarazo), he was not a freeman 
to do as he might please, he belonged to and was 
by legal right the property, the bond servant, of 
the one who paid the price. Now Christ indeed 
redeemed us and so left us free to our own choice, 
we may continue to be our own masters and serve 
our own lusts, or we may surrender ourselves to 
Him, to serve Him, that is one phase of redemption. 

But whether we will or not. He bought us, 
(agorazo) in the open market, against the bidding 
of the world, the flesh and the devil. He paid the 
price, that is — He laid aside the glory He had with 
the Father before the world was. John 17:5. He 
took on Himself the form of a servant and was made 
in the likeness pf men. Phil. 2:7. He became one 
of iis. He mingled with us in our sin-degraded 



140 The Eternal Purpose 

life. He took all the consequences of sin, as they 
rest on us, upon Himself , and so He had to die along 
with us. But in this way He accomplished His 
purpose — He manifested the Father's name — "God 
is love." John 17:6. All this was the price; 
and He paid it. In respect to the Father, it was 
carrying out His declaration when He came into 
the world, saying, 'Xo, I come to do thy will, O 
God." In respect to man, it was doing and enduring 
what was necessary in order to draw him toward 
Himself, and so toward the Father whom He mani- 
fested. 

Who will say that He did not fairly buy the 
love and homage of humanity? Who may deny 
that He is the rightful owner of every man's most 
perfect love, which includes all that a man is or 
may he, all that he has or may hope to have ? All, 
by the verdict of every attribute of Godlikeness 
in man, belonging by right to Him who has redeemed 
us with His own precious blood. And that is what 
the Apostle Paul meant when he said, "Ye are not 
your own, Ye are bought with a price." And so, 
not only by right of creation and original owner- 
ship, but also by right of all that He did and endured 
to buy us away from all iniquity, the Lord is the 
only rightful sovereign of every human being. 
And the Apostle sounds a warning against those 
false teachers who deny that Christ having bought 
them (agozaro,) is by right absolute Lord. (Gr. 
despotes) 2 Fet. 2:1. 

Redemption was completed, the last install- 
ment of the price paid, and the purchase consummated 



"Bought" and "Price" 141 

on the cross, when Jesus said, ''It is finished." 
But the results of the redemption to each soul 
begin when that soul is converted to Christ, making 
a full, unconditional surrender to the Lord of heart 
and life, becoming His disciple; and the whole is 
completed when in the resurrection he is raised up 
in the finished likeness of his Saviour. See 1 John 3 :2. 

''bought" and "price.'' 

The words "bought" and "price," which, in 
commercial transactions, imply something is paid 
to another person, are not to be understood in 
that literal commercial sense, when they are used 
as in the New Testament, respecting the work of 
Christ in saving men from their sins. When 
Americans say, "Our Revolutionary fathers bought 
our liberties," it is not meant that they paid money 
to the King of England ; but that by all they suffered, 
they brought about the freedom of the American 
people as an independent nation. That which they 
cast into the balance, the price, to obtain that inde- 
pendence was all they had, even to their lives. 
But none of it was delivered into the possession 
of the King of England. Life indeed was given; 
and that given life did bring about the political 
freedom of the Americans from the dominion of 
the English ; but that given life did not become the 
possession of Britain as the price to her, in con- 
sideration of which dominion over the American 
colonies was given up. Life is not a commercial 
commodity; it is not exchangeable. The youth 



1 42 The Eternal Purpose 

who plunged into the foaming flood to save the 
maid he loved, paid a price. It was the terrible 
risk that he would find only his own death; but 
that risk, the price, did not become her property. 
That risk was the exhibition of manly courage and 
the proof of a man's true love ; and it was the con- 
sciousness of this that kindled love for him in her 
heart and so made her fit to become the brave man's 
life companion. The intrepid fireman, who groped 
his way through a burning tenement house to the 
fourth story, and by carrying and leading got a 
fire imprisoned mother and children out, all badly 
burned and himself scarred for life, paid a dreadful 
"price" to save those lives; but to whom did he 
pay it? Who received that price and held it in 
possession? Who? And when he had paid that 
price, he had bought something. What did he 
buy ? Mental and physical suffering and the risk of a 
horrible death was the price he paid. What he 
bought was the lasting and affectionate gratitude 
of the ones he saved, with applause and honors 
from all the people. Neither the price he paid 
nor that which he bought was tangible, exchangeable 
property. There was nothing commercial in the 
transaction; and yet we use commercial words 
— ''bought" and "price" in speaking of it. 

Just so is the saving work of Christ spoken of 
by the apostles. All that Christ endured, even 
unto death, was the price He paid to draw humanity 
back to God. The "price," "the precious blood," 
the life given by Him did not pass over to the posses- 
sion of another as a thing of commercial value. 



The Blood 143 

That life devoted and given is the exhibition 
of that which is the glory of the Creator, the proof 
of God's love to man; and it is the consciousness 
of this that kindles love to Him, in the heart of a 
man, and buys him away from the service of his 
own lusts and makes him to become fit for eternal 
companionship in the family of God. How absurd 
is the idea that the sacrifice which Christ made 
was paid to God as so much property to be held by 
Him instead of a continuance of punishment due 
to a sinner. 

All sacrifice is acceptable to God, and **a sweet 
savour unto the Lord," when it is done in the ac- 
complishment of the will of God. And He will 
have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge 
of the truth. 1 Tim. 2 :4. The sacrifice of Himself 
which our Lord Jesus made was in the accomplish- 
ment of that will of God, and that is the meaning 
of the Apostle's saying: ** Christ offered Himself 
without spot unto God. An oflfering and a sacrifice 
to God, for a sweet smelling savour." Heb. 9:14; 
Eph. 5:2. 

THE BLOOD. 

**The Lord spake unto Moses saying: Speak 
unto Aaron and his sons, and unto all the children 
of Israel and say unto them, The life of the flesh 
is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the 
altar, to make an atonement for your souls; for it 
is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul — 
for it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for 
the life thereof." Lev. 17:11-14. 



144 The Eternal Purpose 

The word blood is often used in the Scriptures 
in the sense of hfe taken away, that is, the death 
of the person. When the Jews clamored to Pilate 
for the crucifixion of Jesus and said, **His blood 
be on us and on our children," they meant that 
they were willing to risk the consequences of His 
being put to death. When Judas said, *'I have 
betrayed innocent blood," he meant that he had 
helped to cause the death of the innocent Jesus. 
And the gospel having been rejected with blas- 
phemy, by the Jews at Corinth, Paul **shook his 
raiment and said unto them. Your blood be upon 
your own heads, I am clean." And to the elders of 
the disciples at Ephesus, he said, ''I take you to 
record this day, that I am pure from the blood 
of all; for I have not shunned to declare unto you 
all the counsel of God." Acts. 18 :6 ; 20 :26. 

In these last two passages blood means that 
death which is the consequence of rejecting Christ 
Jesus. ''The blood of His cross," (Col. 1 :20,) means 
His death on the cross. "Ye have not yet resisted 
unto blood, striving against sin," (Heb. 12:4), means 
that ye have not yet resisted unto death. 

The blood of the offering for sin put upon the 
horns of the altar (Lev. 4:25, 30-34), denoted that 
the life of the offerer had been given up wholly 
to the service of God ; that he was devoted to die — 
to give up his life doing the will of God, and that 
he was already dead as to those lusts of the flesh 
which war against the spirit. And that was the 
ground of reconciliation; it made atonement be- 
tween the sinner and the Creator. 



The Blood 145 

Under the law, once a year, on the great day 
of atonement, or reconciHation, the high priest with 
the blood of the bullock of the sin-offering, entered 
the most holy place, beyond the vail, where was 
the ark of the covenant, and there sprinkled the 
blood on the mercy seat and before it, seven times. 
In the ninth chapter of Hebrews this action is 
said to be a type of Christ Jesus entering into the 
presence of God, "By His own blood." Not that 
the human blood of Jesus was actually and literally 
carried and presented before God in heaven, but 
blood that is shed is the evidence of death; and in 
the case of Jesus Christ it was the evidence that 
He had done the will of the Father even unto 
death. And "seven times" in the type means that 
His V70rk was complete and without fault. 

Blood that is shed always signifies life given up. 
And the blood of Christ "shed for many for the 
remission of sins" is just another form of saying, 
that by His death He manifested the love of God 
for us, by which we should be drawn away from 
sin and to that repentance of heart on which God 
can and does forgive sin. So also the words "Thou 
wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy 
blood." Rev. 5:9. The Greek word here rendered 
redeem is agorazo, which means to buy in the open 
market; and the statement is that Christ was 
slain and by His death we were bought to God 
and away from our own lusts. As in Titus 3 :14 
Paul says, "He gave Himself for us that He might 
redeem us from all iniquity" (get us away from our 
lusts.) And Peter says, "Ye were not redeemed 



146 The Eternal Purpose 

with corruptible things, as of silver and gold; 
from your vain conversation received by tradition 
from your fathers, but with the precious blood of 
Christ." 1 Pet. 1:18. 

So these three texts complete the statement, 
giving the facts in full, namely. That by His blood 
shed (life given up) He bought us away from all 
iniquity unto God, so that hereafter we should not 
live unto ourselves, but unto God. *'And now if 
we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have 
fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus 
Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.'' That is 
the death of Christ, the Son of God, has such an 
effect on our minds and hearts, that we turn with 
loathing away from sin, which was the cause of 
His death. And then God freely forgives our 
transgressions and we are clean in His sight. 

THE BIvOOD Oi^ SPRINKUNG. 

When the law was formally announced at Mount 
Sinai, with the promises for their good which the 
Lord made to them, on condition that the Israelites 
would keep all the points of the law, and the people 
had repeatedly ' 'Answered together and said, All that 
the Lord hath spoken we will do, then Moses took 
the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, 
Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord 
hath made with you.'' (See Ex. chapters 19 and 24 
inclusive.) The blood that was sprinkled in testi- 
mony of the covenant, made and entered into between 
Jehovah and the people of Israel, was not the blood 



Blood of Sprinkling 147 

of the sin-offering, but that of the whole burnt offer- 
ing which signifies consecration to the service of the 
Lord. And the blood sprinkled and falling upon 
the individuals of the assembled multitude, marked 
them as the people whose lives were devoted, under 
the terms of that covenant, wholly to doing the 
will of the Creator, even unto death. 

* Alluding to that covenant of the law, of which 
Moses was the mediator, and the confirmation of 
it by the sprinkling of the blood of the burnt offering 
the Apostle says to the disciples of Christ, "Ye are 
come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant 
and to the blood of sprinkling." Heb. 12:24. As 
under the dispensation of the law, the blood denoted 
God's pledge, on His part, to faithfully carry out 
all His promises, and on the part of the people 
who were sprinkled, it denoted their trust in Jeho- 
vah's faithfulness and their devotion to His ser- 
vice, so in the gospel dispensation, ''sprinkling of 
the blood of Jesus Christ" is a figurative expression 
for saying that the Lord has pledged salvation to 
every one that with the heart believes in Christ 
Jesus and enters into the covenant of trust and 
obedience unto God; confessing Christ Jesus as 
their leader unto salvation, and taking up their 
cross and following Him. The mark of Christ, 
by the Holy Spirit, is upon all their conversation 
and their works, as the mark of the blood of the 
covenant was on the persons and the garments of 
all the Israelites. 



148 The Eternal Purpose 



PORTRAITURE OI^ SUBSTITUTION. 

There are some who have been so deeply impressed 
with the doctrine of the substitutional death of 
Christ, and the arguments to uphold it as a commer- 
cial transaction, that it seems necessary at this 
juncture, to hold the thing itself up to view, that 
its absurdity may be plainly seen in its own com- 
position. 

Three theories have been proposed to explain 
the meaning of the penalty of sin, as it was an- 
nounced to Adam, '*Thou shalt die" and it is 
claimed by adherents of each theory that Christ 
suffered the penalty instead of man, and so man was 
let loose. 

The first theory is, '*Thou shalt die'' means that 
the body shall die; but the soul of the sinner lives 
on, without end, in conscious torment. If that is 
the true meaning of the penalty, and if Christ has 
suffered the penalty instead of man, then He is 
dead, as to His body, but His soul is now, and eter- 
nally will be, in torment, suffering the pains of the 
damned. 

The second theory is, **Thou shalt die" does 
not refer to the body which it is claimed would die 
naturally; but only to the soul, which does not 
die at all, in the sense that the body dies; but 
continues to live without end. And that death 
of the soul is therefore not extinction, but only a 
cutting off from the presence and favor of God, 
and never more to be able to rightly apprehend 



Portraiture of Substitution 149 

nor understand Him. And that such banishment is 
* 'outer darkness/' a conscious existence in unending 
mental anguish. 

The third theory is, "Thou shalt die" means 
extinction of the being — that death is the utter 
ceasing of conscious existence, and that justice 
demands that the sinner shall have no reprieve, 
or release from death, which must continue without 
end. He must die and stay dead. 

All attempts which have ever been made to 
make the doctrine of ''the substitutional death of 
Christ" stand, have been on one or another of 
these three theories, as a basis. 

But these theories cannot all be true; two of 
them must be false. Yet if either one of them is 
true and substitutional atonement is also true, 
then the inexorable logic stands firm as the founda- 
tion of all truth, that Christ took and continues 
in the same condition of whichever one it may be. 

As to the first two theories substitutional atone- 
ment cannot stand on either of them ; for the Script- 
ures show that Christ is not in ''everlasting torment," 
but ''is set down at the right hand of the throne 
of God." As to the last theory, if it be true, 
"substitution" is not true. For though Christ 
died. He did not stay dead, but "rose again the 
third day according to the Scriptures." 

It is therefore plain that either all the theories 
claiming to correctly explain the meaning of the 
penalty, "Thou shalt die," are false, or else Christ 
did not suffer as a substitute for man. We need not 
trouble our minds just now with the question as 



150 The Eternal Purpose 

to which of these explanations is correct, if either: 
the question before us is whether Christ suffered 
and died as a substitute for man in the penalty for 
sin. 

The objections here pointed out are by no means 
new thoughts. They arose in the minds of thinking 
men soon after the bars of the Romish priest craft 
were broken, and men dared to think and question 
the * 'mysteries" of the Church. But the natural 
man likes mystery and loves darkness rather than 
light, and while all along the centuries, since the 
discussion first opened, many most earnest Christians 
have repudiated the doctrine of Christ 's substitutional 
death, a very large number have held it as a * 'mys- 
tery" that could not be explained but must be 
believed. 

Now consider that doctrine carefully and you 
will see that the commercial idea is inherent in it, 
and cannot be separated from it. Any attempt 
to get rid of the mystery of substitutional atonement, 
as applied to the suffering of Christ, and give a 
clear understandable explanation of the doctrine 
results every time, and necessarily in the acknowl- 
edgment that it was a commercial transaction. 
That so much was given for so much. But a 
commercial transaction does not admit of a taking 
back of the price, nor a restitution of the substitute 
given in exchange. 

If one man gets a horse from another, and gives 
one hundred dollars as a substitute for the horse, 
he cannot take the money back, nor anything else 
that has value, and keep the horse, too. Just so, 



Portraiture of Substitution 1 5 1 

if Christ gave His life to justice as a substitute for 
the hfe of man, He cannot take Hfe again, in any 
sphere whatever, and man yet remain free ; or if He 
does, then justice is robbed and nothing remains 
as the penahy of sin. 

This also is no new objection, but as old as the 
doctrine that Christ died as man's substitute. 
And it is so plain and so deeply founded in right 
reason, that few indeed, among the myriads of 
theologians have dared to antagonize it, but shut- 
ting off the light, have clung to * 'substitution" 
with the cry, **Mystery, mystery, deep unfath- 
omable mystery. No man can understand it." 

Nevertheless, two right brave attempts have 
been made to bring substitutional atonement to 
the light, dispel mystery and establish the doctrine 
on the solid rock of right reason. The first was 
ancient; the second is modern, very modem. 

The first dates back perhaps to the third century, 
and was fully developed by Gregory of Nyssa, in 
the latter part of the fourth century and was stated 
thus, **Men have come under the dominion of the 
devil by sin. Jesus offered Himself to the devil 
as the ransom for which he should release all others. 
The crafty devil assented, because he cared more 
for the one Jesus, who was so much superior to him, 
than for all the rest. But, notwithstanding his 
craft, he was deceived, since he could not retain 
Jesus in his power. It was, as it were, a deception 
on the part of God, that Jesus veiled his divine nature 
which the devil would have feared, by means of 



152 The Eternal Purpose 

his humanity, and thus deceived the devil by the 
appearance of flesh." 

That the Almighty God resorted to a trick, 
a deception, which was practically lying, as is the 
bold boast of that scheme, may be a worthy inven- 
tion of the times and of the men who built the walls 
of that hierarchy which developed into the Roman 
papacy, but in this day it would be quickly char- 
acterized as blasphemy against Jehovah. But that 
explanation had a run in its day and fell into dis- 
favor; but was revived in the scholastic period, 
the dark ages of the Roman priest-craft, by Bernard 
of Clairvoux, then a monk, now a canonized saint 
of the Roman church. 

The second attempt to remove the doctrine 
of the substitutional death of Christ from the realms 
of mystery is very modern, and is fairly stated 
thus, ''The penalty for sin, 'Thou shalt die,' means 
extinction of conscious being, to be dead and stay 
dead. This sentence was affixed by decree of divine 
Justice; and being exactly right and just, divine 
Justice could never revoke it. But divine Love 
plead for man's release so strongly that divine 
Wisdom devised a plan by which the pleadings 
of Love should be gratified and at the same time 
Justice should be satisfied." The facts on which 
divine Wisdom is said to have acted are these, 
''Adam was the sinner that was condemned. Before 
he sinned he had a value in the Creator's estimate. 
After he had sinned that value was destroyed, 
Adam was lost. Justice had consigned him to the 
oblivion of perpetual death. But Justice was not 



Portraiture of Substitution 153 

very particular whether it was Adam himself that 
was imprisoned in death or another of equal value 
was imprisoned in his stead. But none could be 
found in the universe of God that was just exactly 
the equal value of Adam. All animal beings were 
too low; all spirit beings were too high. But divine 
Wisdom devised a way — a spirit being should be 
reduced to the low^er estate of Adam, and then, having 
become his exact equal, a perfect man, should suffer 
death as a substitute for Adam and so satisfy Justice, 
and Adam could then be loosed from death, and 
made alive again. Who, of all spirit beings, should 
be the one to accept the conditions, and become a 
substitute for Adam in death? Perhaps there were 
many who were competent and were willing to 
offer themselves. But divine Wisdom made choice 
that The Word, who was in the beginning with God, 
should become a man — a perfect man, just as Adam 
was before he had sinned, and so be of equal value. 
Then as a man of equal value, He should die, and 
be dead as a substitute for Adam. And so it 
was enacted, and Christ died.' But the real facts 
are that Christ did not stay dead, as it is said Adam 
was bound to. * 'Christ rose again the third day." 
Now was that a fair transaction? 

If Adam was truly in the grave to stay there, 
and could only be taken out when another perfect 
man had taken his place as his substitute, would not 
the substitute have to stay dead, just the same as 
Adam would have staid dead? Sound reason 
answers, Yes. 



154 The Eternal Purpose 

But the answer given by the inventor of this 
explanation is worthy of the dark ages when priest- 
craft smothered truth with casuistry, or, faihng 
that, slew its adherents with the sword. Read now 
and judge whether this scheme is of higher morals 
than the ancient scheme of deceiving the devil, 
or if the character of the Lord is less besmirched 
than by the legend that He played a trick and cheated 
Satan. Better a thousand times that faith remain 
swaddled in darkness than that a scheme, loathsome 
with fraud, should be accepted to remove the 
mystery. But here it is. * 'Jesus Christ as a perfect 
man, of equal value with Adam, gave His life as 
**the corresponding price,'' a substitute for the 
life of Adam. He died. He arose again from the 
dead. If when He arose from the dead He had 
taken life as a maUy that would truly have been 
taking back the price he paid for Adam's release; 
but He did not take a human life again, but a higher 
and better life, the life of a spirit being of the divine 
nature. And that was altogether another thing." 
But was it another thing? What Christ is said 
to have given was life — conscious being. When 
He arose from the dead He surely again received 
life — conscious being. And to say that He did not 
take back the price He paid, just because He took 
more of it and a greater degree, is worthy the casuis- 
try of popish monks in the dark ages. 

In any case, * 'Justice" loses its prey by as patent 
a fraud as that by which, in former times, it was 
said the lyord had cheated the devil. 



Dispensation of The Kingdom 1 55 



CHAPTER X. 

THE KINGDOM OI? GOD IN THE EARTH. 

It having been demonstrated by means of the 
IsraeHtes, under the dispensation of the law, that 
Jehovah is God alone and that there is no other living 
God, and that He is good, hating wickedness and 
rewarding righteousness, and it having also been 
exhibited and proved, through the life and death 
of Jesus Christ, that God loves the human race 
and that his heart yearns to be loved in return; 
the next step in the divine plan of the ages, as it is 
revealed in the Bible, is to bring the human race, 
the whole race, into that condition in which every 
individual shall come to know these facts and have 
one fair, full opportunity, without preventing cir- 
cumstances, not only to know these truths about 
God, but also to act in respect to them, just as in 
his own heart he may choose. 

It is the declared purpose of God that such shall 
be the case, as it is written, **The earth shall be 
filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, 
as the waters cover the sea." Hab. 2:14. ''All the 
ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the 
Lord and all the kindred of the nations shall worship 
before thee." Ps. 22:27. 

Nothing can be more plainly spoken than these 
things. A time shall come when that which con- 



156 The Eternal Purpose 

stitutes the glory of Jehovah shall be known in 
every part of the earth; and all the families of 
the nations shall worship before Him. 

But previous to the resurrection of Christ no 
messengers were sent to the nations of the world 
to try to convert them to the true and living God. 
And since we have seen that the only way in which 
a soul may come unto God had not been made plain 
until tlie death and resurrection of Christ, it is clear 
to us that things were not until then ready; for 
it was impossible in the times previous to the coming 
of the Messiah to so instruct men in the things 
concerning God, that their hearts would be drawn 
unto Him by the cords of love. Therefore all 
people, excepting the Israelites, had been left to 
follow their own heathen ways. 

But after the resurrection of Christ the way 
of eternal life having been made plain and all 
things being in readiness, Jesus directed His follow- 
ers to go and make disciples, not of the Jews only, 
but of all nations; and that they should baptize 
as many as became disciples in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; 
and then teach them to observe all things that He 
had enjoined upon them. Mat. 28:19. 

All these followers of Christ, full of zeal, went 
to work first with the Jews, among whom within 
a very few years they made several thousand 
converts. But after awhile persecutions arose 
by which the disciples were scattered abroad, 
and then they went everywhere preaching the 
word. Acts. 8:4. And the great work during the 



Dispensation of The Kingdom 157 

succeeding centuries has been chiefly among the 
Gentiles. 

For nearly nineteen hundred years, the gospel 
has been preached to the nations of the world. 
It is true that most of that time it has been badly 
mixed with pagan ideas; but whether mixed or 
pure the world is still far away from understanding 
it, and by far the greater number of earth's inhabit- 
ants know nothing at all about it. 

It has been estimated by some who are in a 
position to make the estimate with approximate 
correctness, that there are about one billion four 
hundred and twenty-four million of people alive 
on the earth in this generation. Of these about 
three hundred and seventy million are called 
"Christians," leaving about one billion and fifty- 
four million who either have never heard the gospel 
of Jesus Christ at all, or have not heard it in a way 
that it could reach their understanding and their 
hearts. In other words, only about one-fourth 
of the world's population are even called * 'Chris- 
tians." And doubtless there are as many who, 
relatively to the number, may be called "Christians" 
in this generation, as in any generation since the 
days of the apostles. 

Now will any one say that this showing is an 
exhibit of the Almighty God's best effort to convert 
the whole world of mankind? Rather has He 
been even trying to convert more than a part of the 
world ? 

In answer to that query many have reasoned 
like this; Jehovah is Almighty; He is perfect in 



158 The Eternal Purpose 

knowledge, understanding and wisdom, therefore if 
He had intended that all people who have lived 
and died since the resurrection of Christ should be- 
lieve on His name while in this life, He would 
certainly have caused them, every one of them, 
to hear and know and understand the truth as it 
is in Christ Jesus, in order that they might believe. 
He knew how and was able to do it; but He did 
not do it. 

This exhibit therefore is a demonstration, an 
absolute proof, that the conversion unto Christ 
Jesus, of all people of the earth while in this life, 
was not His intention. 

But He has promised that, **The earth shall be 
filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, 
as the waters cover the sea.' ' Hab..2:14. That is, 
there shall not be a spot or space in the earth, 
where there is a human being, that shall be without 
that knowledge. 

Neither is that knowledge to be a mere knowing 
something about Him as by hearsay, such as to 
know that He is the God whom the Christians 
profess to worship, but it shall be to know, each 
one for himself, that which constitutes Jehovah's 
glory. A condition of the human race that is yet 
manifestly in the future. 

When shall it be? In what age, and under what 
dispensation will it be accomplished ? 

The prophet Isaiah gives the same promise that 
we have quoted from Habakkuk, and he gives it in 
connection with the reign of Christ, the kingdom 
of God in the earth. He says: ''There shall come 



Dispensation of The Kingdom 159 

forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch 
shall grow out of his roots; and the spirit of the 
Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom 
and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, 
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, 
and shall make Him of quick understanding in 
the fear of the Lord, and He shall not judge after 
the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the 
hearing of His ears, but with righteousness shall 
He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for 
the meek of the earth; and He shall smite the 
earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the 
breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. And 
righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and 
faithfulness the girdle of His rein. The wolf also 
shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall 
lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young 
lion and the fatling together; and a little child 
shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall 
feed ; their young ones shall lie down together, and 
the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the suckling 
child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the 
weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's 
den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my 
holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the 
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. 
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, 
which shall stand for an ensign for the people; to 
it shall the Gentiles seek : and His rest shall be glori- 
ous." Isa. 11:1-10. 

The king of Babylon had a dream, in which he 
saw a great image of a man composed of gold and 



160 The Eternal Purpose 

silver and brass and iron and clay. And then he 
saw a stone prepared without hands, which smote 
the image on his feet of iron and clay, and brake 
them in pieces, and the stone that smote the image 
became a great mountain, and filled the whole 
earth. Dan. 2. 

Under the figure of a mountain the kingdom 
of God in the earth is here shown. See vs. 44. And 
mountains are the usual type of kingdoms in the 
Bible, while hills signify lesser divisions of govern- 
ments. 

With this divinely given definition of "mountain'' 
as a type, let us turn to Isa. 2:1-4. "It shall come 
to pass in the last days, the mountain of the Lord's 
house shall be established in the top of the mountains 
and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations 
shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and 
say, Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the 
Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He 
shall teach us His ways and we will walk in His 
paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and 
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall 
judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many 
people ; and they shall beat their swords into plow- 
shares, and their spears into pruning hooks ; nation 
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall 
they learn war any more. '' 

Here again is the kingdom of God in the earth 
and in its time, "the last days," all nations and 
the people of the earth are coming unto God, and 
He is teaching them His ways, and the result is 
they shall cease from manufacturing implements 



Dispensation of the Kingdom 161 

of war, and turning their time to peaceful occupa- 
tions, siiall learn the arts of war no more. 

But the mountain that is over all the mountains 
is the "mountain of the Lord's house." And the 
Lord's house is defined to be that body of believers 
of which Christ Jesus is the head. See 1 Tim. 3 :15. 

The mountain, therefore, is a government com- 
posed of those whom the Lord has made members 
of the body of Christ, called "saints." 

The prophet Daniel, in the 7th chapter, de- 
scribes the setting up of this kingdom, concluding 
in these words, "And the kingdom and dominion, 
and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole 
heavens, shall be given to the people of the saints of 
the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting king- 
dom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him," 
And again Isaiah says, "In this mountain shall the 
Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat 
things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things 
full of marrowy of wine on the lees well refined. 
And He will destroy in this mountain the face of 
the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is 
spread over all nations. He will swallow up death 
in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears 
from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people 
shall He take away from off all the earth, for the 
Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that 
day, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him 
and He will save us ; this is the Lord ; we have waited 
for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." 
Isa. 25:6-9. 

From these Scriptures, and very much more, 



162 The Eternal Purpose 

which we shall see as we progress, the time appointed 
In the plan of God, when every soul shall come to 
a correct knowledge of God, is during that dispen- 
sation called the kingdom of God; the time when 
Christ, with His saints, reigns in the earth to the 
exclusion of human politics ; when all false teaching 
of men shall have been exposed and dissipated 
as fog before the wind; all people having come to 
the knowledge of the truth in relation to each 
other and to God, then ''every knee shall bow 
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord 
to the glory of God, the Father/^ 

It has been a common opinion among Christians 
that though the period of the dispensation of the 
kingdom of God in the earth, commonly called 
the Millennium, is the time in the plan of God 
for the universal dissemination of the gospel of 
Jesus Christ until it fills the earth as the waters 
cover the sea, and * 'every one shall know the Lord 
from the least to the greatest;" yet that the inten- 
tion of the promise applied only to the generation 
of men that should be living at that time, and that 
those who had lived and died in the generations 
of former centuries and had never known, nor had 
an opportunity to know, the truth as it is in Christ 
Jesus, would have no benefit from it. 

Such an opinion never rose from a knowledge 
of the Scriptures of God, but from reading and 
interpreting those Scriptures by preconceived ideas 
of heathen origin. 

But the Holy Scriptures plainly declare that 
there shall be a living again (Gr. palingenesia)^ 



Dispensation of The Kingdom 163 

and that the Hving again is to be by resurrection 
from death from the grave. 

The prophets and the psahns dwell much on the 
subject. Dan. 12:2, says, ''And many (the multi- 
tude) of them that sleep in the dust of the earth 
shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to 
shame and everlasting contempt." Jesus says, 
**The hour is coming in which all that are in the 
graves shall hear His voice and come forth, they 
that have done good imto the resurrection of life; 
and they that have done evil unto the resurrection 
of judgment/' John 5 :28. 

The statements in these passages are unlimited 
and unqualified ; they therefore mean every one 
of the whole human race. 

It is clearly taught in all the Scriptures that 
all who have lived and died without having received 
that knowledge of God, which was and is neces- 
sary for the formation of such a character as is 
essential for eternal life, shall yet be fully instructed. 
David says, "All they that go down to the dust 
shall bow before Him, and (for) none can keep 
his soul alive." Ps. 22:29. That is, none can keep 
from dying; all must die. But though they die 
and return to dust, for of every man it is written, 
**unto dust shalt thou return," yet in the appointed 
time "they shall bow before the Lord." And again 
He says, vs. 27, "All the ends of the world shall 
remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the families 
of the nations shall worship before Thee." 

What shall they remember? They have all 
been asleep in the dust of the earth ; and when they 



164 The Eternal Purpose 

shall hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth 
they shall remember the affairs of their former life, 
and after having been freed from its delusions and 
brought to the knowledge of the truth, they shall 
turn unto the Lord and worship before Him. 

Jesus, speaking to an assembly of Jews, says 
to them: *'The men of Nineveh shall rise in the 
judgment with this generation and condemn it, 
because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; 
and behold a greater than Jonas is here." These 
men of Nineveh to whom Jonas preached, some 
eight or nine hundred years before Christ, were 
heathen, blank as to a correct knowledge of the 
living God. But they are to be present at the 
judgment, together with those Jews who saw and 
heard Jesus but would not receive Him. 

How shall these men of Nineveh condemn those 
Jews for not receiving Christ, unless the doctrines 
He taught and the works He did are fully made 
known to them? And that would involve making 
known to them the things concerning the kingdom 
of God and the plan of salvation through Jesus 
Christ. Jesus also said of the city of Capernaum 
*'If the mighty works which have been done in thee, 
had been done in Sodom, it w^ould have remained 
unto this day;" which is equivalent to saying 
that at least some of the people of Sodom would 
have repented, if the precious truths had been 
told to them which were told to the people of 
Capernaum. But they were not told to them; 
so they all perished in comparative ignorance and 
in their sin. But they are to rise from the dead 



Dispensation of the Kingdom 165 

and they are to be present at the juilgment; at 
which Ume Jesus says to Capernaum, ''It shall 
be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the 
day of judgment than for thee." 

Now if any of the people of Sodom would have 
repented, had the gospel been preached to them, 
w^ould it be like our God, ''whose mercy endureth 
forever," to condemn them to a punishment that 
is endless, without allowing them to know the truth, 
which, if they had known, some of them at least, 
would have ceased from their brutish habits and 
would have turned to Him in loving obedience? 
And besides, since "Every knee shall bow and 
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father," how can they do 
it? How can they confess with the tongue that 
Jesus Christ is Lord, if they have not learned it? 
How shall they talk of those things which are the 
glory of the Father, unless those things have become 
matters of their own knowledge? 

Let it not be supposed that the heathen who 
are to be taught and made to know the truth, 
in the time of the kingdom of God on the earth, 
are any of them personally in the kingdom. All 
that teaching is for those who are outside, who are 
passing in the judgment. There is a sharp distinc- 
tion between the saints who are in, who do the teach- 
ing, and the unconverted who are not yet in, 
but are being taught the gospel truth. 

In the last chapter of Revelation it is written, 
"Blessed are they that do His commandments, that 
they may have right to the tree of life and may enter 



166 The Eternal Purpose 

in through the gates into the city. For* without 
are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers, and 
murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and 
maketh a He." 

And such are all the heathen. But *'The gates 
of the city shall not he shut at all by day; for there 
shall be no night there.'" 

These last words, there shall be no night there 
prove that the time spoken of is not the present 
gospel age, but the time of the kingdom of God. 
And then, at that same time, when the gates of 
the city shall not be shut at all, ''The spirit and 
the bride say come. And let Him that heareth 
say come. And let him that is athirst come; 
and whosoever will let him take the water of life 
freely." Then, and at that time, all who have not 
had a fair and right opportunity to know the truths 
of God shall have it. It will not be a second chance 
for any ; but a first real opportunity for all who had 
not been taught of God in their previous lifetime, 
in whatever age they may have lived. That is the 
time set apart in God's plan, as He hss revealed 
it to us in the Bible, when He will make an effort 
to convert every human soul that has ever lived; 
and He will then do all that He can to that end. 
For He will cause all to know the gospel of Jesus 
Christ, by which they shall know God correctly; 
for "The gospel is the power of God unto salvation 
to every one that believes." It is the only power 
that God uses, or can use, to convert the beings 
who are in His image and likeness. Having obtained 
that knowledge of God, which is alone revealed 



Dispensation of the Kingdom 167 

in the gospel, each one is then free to do just as 
he may choose, and without let or hindrance 
he may harmonize with his Creator, or he may hold 
himself to ways that are not in harmony with God. 
And this is true in every age and under every dis- 
pensation without end; for man is the image and 
likeness of God and therefore endlessly free to do 
as he may choose. 

CONDITIONS NECESSARY TO ENTERING THE KINGDOM, 

The Lord Jesus made very plain the conditions 
on which one can enter the kingdom of God, and 
without which none could possibly enter. ''A 
man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler 
of the Jews, came to Jesus by night and said unto 
Him, Rabbi we know that thou art a teacher come 
from God, for no man can do these miracles that 
thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered 
him. Except a man be bom from above he cannot 
see the kingdom of God."^ That was the subject 
troubling the mind of Nicodemus, and it was that 
which brought him to seek a private interview 
with Jesus ; for the kingdom of God was the special 
subject of Christ's public teaching, as it is written, 
* 'Jesus went about, preaching the gospel of the 
kingdom.'' But His teaching concerning the king- 
dom of God was so different from that of the scribes 
and elders as to astonish everybody. 

Evidently, in His public teachings, Jesus had 
advanced the thought of being born again as 
necessary for all who would enter the kingdom, 



168 The Eternal Purpose 

and that was the puzzle which Nicodemus wanted 
to have explained ; and Jesus said to him definitely, 
** Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, 
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." But 
Nicodemus was as much in a quandary as at first 
and said, *'How can these things be ? Jesus answered 
him. Art thou a master in Israel and knowest not 
these things?" 

Christ would not have so reproved Nicodemus 
unless it had been not only possible for him to 
know, but that he ought to have known, or never 
have assumed the position of a teacher in Israel. 
For these things were set forth in the law and the 
prophets; and if he had given diligent attention 
to the spirit of the word, rather than to the tradi- 
tions of the elders, they would have become clear 
to his mind. 

In the law, washing one's self was the finishing 
work that accomplished typical purifying. It was 
not because the meaning of these washings was 
an undiscoverable mys"tery that the great mass of 
Israelites, together with their scribes and elders, did 
not know their significance. It was because they 
did not care what their true meaning was, if only 
they could so keep the letter of the law as to avoid the 
penalties. 

But some did understand. When David was 
convicted of his great sins by the prophet Nathan, 
he wrote the 51st Psalm, and he cries unto God, 
"Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash 
me and I shall be whiter than snow." In this he 
alluded to the law for cleansing. See Lev. 14:1-9; 



Dispensation of The Kingdom 169 

Num. 19:19. By that law he was to wash himself 
and he could do it so far as to his body; just so he 
could cast off the practice of wrongdoing; but he 
knew the spiritual significance of that law, that the 
external washing stood for an internal cleansing, 
a work which only God could do; so he prays, 
**Wash me" (do thou wash me), that is, ''Blot out all 
mine iniquities; create in me a clean heart, O God, 
Thou God of my salvation." 

Such was the meaning of washing in the law, 
and the prophet Isaiah rebuking Israel says, 
'*Wash you, make you clean (how?) put away the 
evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease 
to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve 
the oppressed; judge the fatherless; plead for the 
widow." (What shall be the effect of this kind 
of washing?) ''Though your sins be as scarlet, they 
shall be as wool." And without such washing, 
and unless God should create in him a clean heart, 
no man could enter into the kingdom; for, "Who 
shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord, or who shall 
stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands 
and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul 
unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive 
the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from 
the God of his salvation. " Ps. 24:3-5. 

Ought not Nicodemus, "a master in Israel," 
to have known and understood from these scriptures 
that every soul, being "shapen in iniquity and 
conceived in sin," was not fit for the kingdom of 
God; but must first become a new creature, "bom 
from above," washed, "bom of water." 



170 The Eternal Purpose 

Nicodemus supposed, as did all the Jews, that 
to be a son of Abraham was a clear title to the 
kingdom of God; such as he imagined it to be, a 
kingdom of men in the flesh. The second condition 
of entering therein, as declared by Jesus, was there- 
fore, a more stunning revelation to his Jewish 
understanding, namely, that the kingdom of God 
in the earth, of which all the prophets had spoken, 
and for which every true Israelite devoutly hoped, 
was not at all composed of men in the flesh, the 
animal organism ; but only of those who had passed 
from the animal organism into the spiritual organism 
— death in the animal body and resurrection in the 
spiritual body. 

This was clearly taught in the Old Testament 
Scriptures; for in the law the offerings for sin, 
as indeed all animal sacrifices, typified the death 
and destruction of the animal organism of flesh and 
blood. **For flesh and blood cannot inherit the 
kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit 
incorruption." **That which is born of flesh is 
flesh.'' It is corruptible, and has an inheritance 
of actual corruption; therefore, it is not adapted 
to continue without end, and no change. ''That 
which is born of the spirit is spirit;" and is not 
visible to the eyes of fleshy organism. But as 
*'The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou 
hearest the sound thereof , but canst not tell whence 
it Cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one 
that is bom of the spirit." No longer a flesh and 
blood being, but a spirit being. 

Jesus, at His resurrection, was the first one 



Dispensation of The Kingdom 1 7 1 

*'born of the spirit." He is "The faithful witness; 
the first born of the dead,''' "the first born of every 
creature." "Risen from the dead and become the 
first fruits of them that slept." Rev. 1:5; Col. 1:15; 
1 Cor. 15:20. He is no longer a flesh and blood 
being, but a spirit being. And the Apostle Paul 
says, "Though we have known Christ after the 
flesh, yet now, henceforth, know Him (so) no more." 

The idea, widely prevalent, that "born of the 
spirit" means conversion or a change of heart, 
is a mere supposition without divine authority; 
for it is so used nowhere in the Scriptures. And 
that idea makes foolishness of Christ's statement to 
Nicodemus, for that is what "born of water" means. 

To recapitulate: "Bom of water" means faith 
and repentance on the part of man, and the cleansing 
of his heart by the power of God. By which 
combination of his own work with the work of 
God in his heart, the man becomes "holy unto the 
Lord," "wholly sanctified." 

"Bom of the spirit" is the same man who, hav- 
ing died in the flesh, is, at "the first resurrection," 
raised unto life, a spirit being like the Lord Jesus. 
"When we shall see Him, we shall be like Him." 

It has been the thought of some that the kingdom 
of God will consist of two parts, a spiritual and a 
fleshly. That Christ Jesus and all who are wholly 
consecrated from among all nations, during the 
gospel age, and who, when He shall appear, will 
be like Him, will be spirit beings; and these will be 
the invisible kingdom ; but Abraham, and all the 
Old Testament saints, as they think, will be restored 



1 72 The Eternal Purpose 

to a flesh and blood organism, and will constitute 
the visible kingdom of God on the earth. But a 
careful reading of all the prophecies concerning the 
restoration of Israel to the promised land shows that 
the restoration will only prepare them to receive 
the gospel of Jesus Christ, and does not make them 
to be the kingdom itself. And besides Jesus was 
talking to an Israelite when He said "Except a man 
is born of the spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom 
of God." And these words of the Son of God are 
not figurative, and are not limited to the men of 
any particular nation, nor to any generation, nor 
in any way qualified. They ought, therefore, 
to settle the question. There will be none inside 
the kingdom but spirit beings. ''For flesh and 
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." 

THE RESURRECTION. 

While, then, all that may enter the kingdom 
are to be raised up in spiritual bodies, it seems that 
those who will be restored to life, but brought into 
judgment, will be restored in bodies of flesh and blood, 
the soulical or animal body, and w411 be still subject 
to evils, and liable to death, "the second death." 

That there will be very great differences in 
the condition and the outward appearance of the 
people in the resurrection, there can be no dispute. 

The Apostle Paul sa^^s, "Some will say. How are 
the dead raised up and with what body do they 
come?" And he replies, "That which thou 
sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be 



Dispensation of The Kingdom 1 73 

but bare grain, it may chance of wheat or somc^ 
other grain; but God giveth it a body as it hath 
pleased Him, and to every seed his own body. 
All flesh is not the same; but there is one flesh of 
men, another of beasts, another of birds and another 
of fishes. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies 
terrestrial ; but the glory of the celestial is one and 
the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is 
one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon, 
and another glory of the stars, for one star differeth 
from another in glory. So also is the resurrection 
of the dead:' 1 Cor. 15:35-42. 

By these illustrations he points out to us that 
in the resurrection there are two great divisions: 
One division likened to the celestial, and the other 
to the earthly conditions. Of those who in the 
resurrection will be earthy, he suggests that there 
will be orders, from a higher to a lower grade, as 
in the organism of men, beasts, birds and fishes. 
Of those who in the resurrection will be heavenly, 
he suggests the distinction will be as between light- 
giving and light-reflecting luminaries. The glory 
of the sun is that of a light-giver; the glory of the 
moon is that of a light-reflector. The stars differ 
in glory, for some of them are light-givers, like the 
sun; for they are other "suns lighting systems," 
while others are only light-reflectors; for they are 
planets like the earth and moon. 

Of the heavenly ones, however, in the resurrec- 
tion, the difference between light-givers and light- 
reflectors is not because of higher or lower morals, 
for all are pure; but it is a difference of spiritual 



174 The Eternal Purpose 

attainments and capacities, in the likeness of Jesus 
Christ and the service of the Lord. 

There have been resurrections of dead persons; 
that is, some who were prostrated in death have, 
by the power of God, been raised from death. Such 
was the daughter of Jairus (Mar. 5:35-42), and the 
young man of Nain, (Luke 7:12-15), and Lazarus, 
(John 11 :44). And in the Old Testament a child was 
restored to life for the prayer of Elijah, (1 Kings 
17:22), and another for the prayer of Elisha, (2 Kings 
4:32.) These all were restorations to life in the 
flesh, corruptible and mortal ; they were still liable 
to death. 

And these cases seem to be illustrative of the 
restoration to life of the great mass of the human 
race, in the time of the resurrection. It is a restora- 
tion of life in a body that is corruptible and mortal, 
just as the body of the present life. And in that 
organism they are brought into judgment. 

All trial must be in a mortal organism; for **the 
soul that sinneth it shall die." 

The spiritual body seems to have been illustrated 
to us by the body of Jesus after His resurrection. 
He was seen by some most intimately acquainted 
with Him, very soon after His return to life; but 
they did not recognize Him; they thought Him to 
be the man in charge of the garden where the sepul- 
cher was. Again, two of His disciples walked with 
Him quite a long way, on the road to Emmaus, 
and He talked with and explained to them how it 
was necessary that Christ should die; but they 
thought him some stranger, until at last He discovered 



Dispensation of The Kingdom 1 75 

Himself to them, and then when they knew Him, 
He vanished out of their sight. And so He appeared 
*'in another form" at different times and each time 
the disciples did not recognize Him until He, by 
some means, revealed Himself. At one time they 
were assembled, having the doors shut for fear 
of the Jews. And suddenly Jesus stood in their 
midst, and they were terrified, supposing that they 
had seen a spirit. And He said, ''Why are ye 
troubled? Behold my hands and my feet, that 
it is I myself, handle Me and see; for a spirit hath 
not flesh and bones as ye see Me have." 

It is plain that He had power to change His 
bodily appearance at will, and to assume ''flesh and 
bones" or any form He would choose. He could 
be visible or invisible to the human eye; walls 
and door fastenings were no obstruction to His 
progress; for He was "raised in power," a spirit 
being. 

THE SPIRITUAL BODY. 

It may be well at this point to observe that 
the spiritual body must not be thought of as imma- 
terial. It is impossible, in fact, for the human mind 
to conceive of a body that is "immaterial." And 
such an expression is therefore a misuse of language 
and wholly unwarranted by any revelation from 
God, as it is by the known laws of nature. 

The Latin word spiritus, from which comes our 
word spirit, means in that language, "a breath, a 
breeze, a gentle wind.'' And the angels of God are 
called spirits, or spirit beings, because they are 



1 76 The Eternal Purpose 

invisible to the human eye ; but their existence and 
power is known, hke that of the wind. But it is 
weh known to science that the wind, which is atmos- 
pheric air in miotion, is just as material as the granite 
rock. Spiritus is the Latin equivalent for the Greek 
word pneunia, meaning air. And the air is every- 
where and in everything. Men have never been 
able to wholly extract it from any space, however 
small. A vacuum has not been found in nature, 
and men can only partially make one. Air will be 
there whether in the deepest ocean or over the 
highest mountain or in the most solid rock. The 
English spirit, Latin spiritus, and Greek pneuma 
are therefore fitting words in their respective lan- 
guages, to express the known fact of influences, 
forces and living beings, that we cannot see, but 
for the existence of which we have evidences that 
we can not doubt. 

SPIRIT OF^ THE WORI.D AND SPIRIT WHICH IS OF GOD. 

In a figurative sense, spirit and its equivalent 
in other languages, mean the inner motive, that 
which actuates a sentient being to any action, 
whether good or bad. So we ordinarily speak of 
a good-spirited person, or an evil-spirited person; 
meaning persons whose motives and intentions 
are, in the one case, good, and in the other, bad. 
If the actuating motive is for the gratification of 
one's appetites, the accumulation of wealth, obtain- 
ing power over others, gaining applause, making a 
fine show, or any such things, that person has the 



Dispensation of The Kingdom 1 77 

spirit of the world. But if the actuating motive 
is to know the ways of God and comply with them 
in all the relations of life, that person has the spirit 
which is of God — the holy spirit. It is the spirit 
that is like God — the spirit of Christ. And so 
Paul says, *'Now we have received not the spirit 
of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that 
we might know the things which are freely given to 
us of God." 1 Cor. 2:12. 

Now all who have that spirit would rightly 
use any power that God would give them, and so 
they are fit to live and worthy of eternal life. And 
in the resurrection they are ''raised in power/* 
that is, they are given an organism, a body, by which 
they will be unrestrained and unlimited, and be 
fully able to accomplish whatsoever they may desire 
to do. But those who have the spirit of the world 
would abuse such power if they had it. It would 
be a great calamity to give it to them, and God will 
not raise them up in power. 

We all "are sown in weakness;" that is, we 
are born, pass our lifetime and go down to the grave 
in weakness, subject to ills, and unable *to accom- 
plish all our purposes. But all those who overcome 
**the spirit of this world" will be raised in power. 
All others will be raised in weakness, still subject 
to ills and liable to death — "the second death." 

But at that time as many of them as shall say, 
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, 
to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will 
teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths." 
And when, through the ministr}^ of that "house of 



1 78 The Eternal Purpose 

God/' they are brought to a knowledge of the truth 
as it is in Christ Jesus, if they shall repent and believe 
with the heart, **They may have right to the tree 
of life, and may enter in through the gates into 
the City/' They will be changed from the cor- 
ruptible body to a spiritual body without death. 
And of this change, Enoch, the seventh from Adam, 
seems to be the forerunner: of him it is written, 
*' Enoch was translated that he should not see 
death; and was not found because God had trans- 
lated him ; for before his translation he had this 
testimony, that he pleased God.'' Heb. 11:5. So 
it appears it shall be with all who believe and repent 
during the kingdom age ; ''for flesh and blood cannot 
inherit the kingdom of God." 



Dispensation of The Gospel 1 79 



CHAPTER XL 

DISPENSATION OF THE GOSPElv AGE. 

Having looked so far into the dispensation of 
the kingdom of God on earth as to see that its 
main feature is the fiUing of the whole earth with 
the knowledge of the glory of God, and the conse- 
quent conversion to Christ Jesus of as many as 
will allow themselves to be wholly influenced at 
that time by the gospel, we may now turn back 
and read the Scriptures intelligently concerning 
**The Gospel Age," which we have heretofore 
passed with only an allusion. 

And such was necessary; for the purpose of the 
gospel age, in the divine plan, as shown in the 
Bible, can not be rightly understood by us until 
our minds have been divested of the prevalent 
misconceived idea that whatever gospel work is 
not accomplished in this life will never be done : 
that any who are not reached by the precious truth 
of God's love now will never have an opportunity 
to be reached by it, but are *'lost forever." And 
that during the gospel age the work of converting 
all nations of people to the gospel of Christ is, by 
the Lord, laid upon Christians; and if the work is 
not accomplished, it is because of the dereliction 
of those who profess to love and obey Him. 

But we have seen that the great work of fully 



180 The Eternal Purpose 

and correctly instructing all peoples of the earth, 
in the gospel of Jesus Christ, belongs not to the 
period of the gospel age, but to that of the kingdom 
age, the time when the misrule of selfish, ambitious 
men shall have ceased; and "the kingdom and do- 
mmion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the 
whole heaven shall be given to the people of the 
saints of the Most High.'" 

We now wish to see what is the real purpose of 
the gospel dispensation, in the plan of the ages, as 
it is set forth in the Holy Scriptures. 

The commission which Christ Jesus gave to 
His followers was that they should "Go ... . and 
make disciples of all the nations." Matt. 28 :19. He 
did not tell them they should convert all the people 
of all nations : but He did say, * That repentance 
and remission of sins should be preached in His 
name among all nations." Luke 24. And, "Ye 
shall be witnesses unto me .... unto the uttermost 
parts of the earth." Acts 1:8. "And this gospel 
of the kingdom, shall be preached in all the world 
for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the 
end come." Matt. 24:14. The end of the gospel 
age, and the end of sinful man's misrule, and the 
end of griefs and sufferings of those who love God. 

The very patent fact, that while the command- 
ment was to go and make disciples of all nations, 
and repentance and remission of sins should be 
preached among all nations, yet that the Lord did 
not make and sustain in good working order a 
working system, competent to accomplish the con- 
version of every one of the people, by the presen- 



Dispensation of The Gospel 181 

tation of the truth and refutation and destruction 
of all that is false, in the mind of each and every 
individual, is sufficient evidence that the commission 
did not contemplate the conversion of every one. 

That which it did contemplate, that which the 
preaching of the gospel by the disciples was intended 
to accomplish, and for the accomplishment of 
which competent arrangements were made by the 
Lord, is fully set forth in the New Testament, and 
as fully illustrated in the law of Moses; so there is 
no reasonable excuse for misunderstanding and 
mixing up the work that the Lord has assigned 
to the kingdom age with the work assigned to the 
gospel age. 

But that mixing has occurred, and it has most 
miserably encumbered and obstructed the true 
work of the gospel. And this has come about 
through the careless following of human ideas and 
the traditions of men, rather than a careful observ- 
ance of the words of the Lord, in the Holy Script- 
ures. 

The distinctive features of these two dispensa- 
tional ages was clearly brought out at a conference 
held by the apostles and the brethren of Jerusalem. 
Paul and Barnabus had been on a preaching tour 
among the Gentiles and many had been converted 
to Christ. When they returned to Jerusalem and 
told the results of their labors, some converted 
Jews insisted that all these Gentile converts should 
be circumcised and taught to keep the law of 
Moses. But Paul opposed this, on the ground that 
the law^ was intended only to serve as a school- 



182 The Eternal Purpose 

master until the Messiah should come, and that 
God never intended its provisions should be laid 
upon the Gentiles. Then Peter called the attention 
of the zealous Pharisee brethren to the fact, which 
they all well remembered, when Cornelius, the 
Roman centurion, was converted, and the members 
of his household with him, that the Lord bestowed 
His holy spirit upon them, though they were not 
circumcised, nor ever had observed the Mosaic law. 

By this he was leading them to see that the 
dispensation of the law was not intended to lap 
over on the dispensation of the gospel. 

At this point James took up the discussion, and 
referring to what Peter had said, he drew out at 
more length and more fully the subject, showing 
the clean-cut distinction between God's intention 
or purpose, to be accomplished during the gospel 
age, and that of the kingdom age. 

He quotes Peter, saying, *' Simeon hath declared 
how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take 
out of them a people for His name.'' And then he 
says, "And to this agree the words of the prophet; 
as it is written. After this (after He has taken out 
a people for His name) I will return and will build 
again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down 
and I will build up the ruins thereof, and I will set 
it up: (Why? What shall the kingdom be set up 
for?) That the residue of men might seek after the 
Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is 
called, saith the Lord who doeth these things.'* 
Acts 15:14-17. 

Peter and James here show that the first work 



Dispensation of The Gospel 183 

the Lord will do will be to choose from among the 
Gentiles (the nations) individuals, such as become 
worthy and competent for the purpose, who shall 
be called by His name, that name of His which was 
given to the Only Begotten Son, which, being trans- 
lated, is Saviour. 

These chosen ones shall be * 'kings and priests 
unto God;" they shall be ''laborers together with 
God" to save the people of all ages and all nations 
from their ignorance of God, and so, from their sins. 
Then w^hen these shall have been selected, the com- 
petent number completed, during the gospel age, 
the next thing to be done, as shown by the prophet, 
will be to set up the kingdom of God in the earth, 
which had been typified by the kingdom of David. 
And the declared object of establishing that kingdom 
is, ''That the residue of men might seek after the 
Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name 
is called, saith the Lord." 

This statement of the purpose, the intention, of 
these two dispensational ages, the gospel age and 
the kingdom age, is so simple and plain that there 
is no occasion for any one to misunderstand. 

The Apostle Paul dwells much on the fact that 
God is working with a purpose in view: and that 
the calling and election of those who shall be 
"a people for His name," is that they may be 
instruments in His hands for the accomplishment 
of His purpose; he says, "All things work together 
for good to them that love God, them that are 
called according to his purpose;'' "who saved us and 
called us with an holy calling, not according to our 



184 The Eternal Purpose 

works, but according to His own purpose.'' Rom. 
8:28; 2 Tim 1:9. And he compares the calHng 
and election of the members of Christ to that of 
Pharaoh, and he quotes, *'For the Scriptures saith 
unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I 
raised thee up, that I might shew my power in 
thee, and that my name might be declared through- 
out all the earth/' Rom. 9:17. And he shows 
that the calling and election is not a matter of 
choice with persons, but that God, for reasons 
known to Himself, chooses one person and passes 
by another. And that the Almighty does not have 
to give any reason for His action in this matter, 
other than that it is His own business and that 
He is managing it Himself. And in illustration of 
this, he cites the case of Esau and Jacob. Esau 
being the first born, under the rule of primogeniture 
would be entitled to inheritance of all that which 
descended through the father, and could not be 
divided. Such was the promised blessing given 
to Abraham, which descended through Isaac; but 
instead of going on to Esau, God gave it to Jacob. 
Not because Jacob was good or Esau bad; for the 
history of the case, (Gen. 25:20-34), indicates that 
Esau was the more honest man; but the decision 
was made before they were born, and therefore 
before either had done good or evil, ''That the 
purpose of God according to election might stand." 
The passing of Esau and choosing (election) of 
Jacob served the Lord's purpose to teach men 
that He manages His own business, irrespective 



Dispensation of The Gospel 185 

of any rules or arrangements men may make, 
whether of primogeniture, or other matters. 

The purpose for the accompHshment of which, 
the people for His name are chosen, is thus declared 
**Ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood, 
an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should 
show forth the praises of Him who hath called you 
out of darkness into His marvelous light." 1 Pet. 
2 :9. And Paul says, ''God who is rich in mercy .... 
hath raised us up together in heavenly places in 
Christ Jesus (what for?) That in the ages to come 
He might show the exceeding riches of His grace, in 
His kindness toward us, through Christ Jesus. 
Having made known unto us the mystery of His 
will, according to His good pleasure which He 
purposed in Himself; (what did He purpose?) 
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He 
might gather together in one, all things in Christ, 
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, 
in Him in whom also we have obtained an inherit- 
ance, being predestinated according to the purpose 
of Him who worketh all things after the counsel 
of His own will ; that we should be the praise of His 
glory, who first trusted in Christ." 

Here then are the facts, this people for His name 
shall be a royal priesthood, who, on their part, shall 
''shew forth the praises (perfections) of the Lord." 
While God, on His part, "might show the exceeding 
riches of His grace (favor) in His kindness toward 
us." For, "Of His own will He begat us with the 
word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits 
of His creatures." Jas. 1:18. "Who first trusted 



186 The Eternal Purpose 

in Christ/' **The first fruits unto God and the Lamb/' 
But there can be no first fruits unless a harvest 
of the whole crop is to follow. And this, the harvest, 
is to take place *'in the ages to come," in ''the 
dispensation of the fullness of times" when ''He will 
gather in one all that are in Christ, both that are 
in heaven and on earth." 

The business of a priest, as defined and illustrat- 
ed in the law of Moses, is that of a mediator from 
God, who has been sinned against, to man, the 
sinner. The purpose then for which this "people 
for His name" are chosen, elect, is that they may be 
mediators, to bring about a reconciliation. But 
they are not only priests, they are "kings and 
priests unto God" (Rev. 5:10.) "A royal priest- 
hood." They shall, at the same time, while they 
act as mediators, also reign with Christ. They will 
have power to reign, for they have been "raised in 
power." They are "the house of God" (Tim. 
3:15; Heb. 3:6), over which Jesus is the high priest. 
Heb. 10:21. And when the kingdom of God in the 
earth, "The mountain of the Lord's house shall be 
established in the top of the mountains, and shall 
be exalted above the hills, all nations shall flow 
unto it. And many people shall go and say. Come 
ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, 
to the house of the God of Jacob ; and He will teach 
us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths." It 
is this elect company, this "people for His name," 
"kings and priests unto God, a royal priesthood, 
sons of God," that will be there to receive them ; and 
under the Lord Jesus, the head of the body, will 



Dispensation of The Gospel 187 

instruct them in the ways of the Lord and show 
them how to walk in His paths. 

It is during the gospel age, beginning with the dis- 
ciples of Jesus and continuing to the present, that each 
and all of the members of this elect body, of which 
Christ Jesus is the head, are called, by hearing the gos- 
pel and believing it : and then, for the remainder of 
their lifetime, serving an apprenticeship in the 
work of bringing souls to God, and have all those 
experiences which develop in them the qualifications 
necessary to be "kings and priests unto God;" that 
they may become competent to receive, instruct 
and guide the multitudes of all ages and dispensa- 
tions, who shall in their several orders, and in their 
appointed times, hear the voice of the son of God 
and come forth out of the graves, during the 
dispensation of the kingdom of God in the earth. 

We see, then, that not the conversion of all men, 
but the calling and selecting of members of this 
body of Christ is the work which God has assigned 
to the period of time which we commonly call 
"the gospel age." It is the time covered by the 
commission, "Go make disciples of all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the 
Son and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to 
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
you ; and lo, I am with you alway unto the end of 
the age." Matt. 28:19-20. 

Observ^e with care the commission. Jesus did 
not say "Go teach," as it is rendered in the A. V., 
which is utterly wrong, and is corrected in the 
revised version (R. V.) to read "Go make disciples." 



188 The Eternal Purpose 

The Greek word here used is matheetuo, and means 
get others to become learners, and carries with it the 
thought that when you have got them interested 
and they become pupils, students, then they may 
be taught. And those who become pupils, or 
learners, are called matheetees; and this word occurs 
more than two hundred and fifty times in the New 
Testament, and is always translated by the Latin 
word discipMlus, anglicized ''disciple." But disciple 
is not a word in common use, in the every-day busi- 
ness of English-speaking people; it therefore yet 
needs to be translated to a word in such common 
use that common people may at once know the 
meaning, and the word that covers the whole 
meaning, as used in the Scriptures, is apprentice — a 
pupil who learns from the words and example of a 
master, and practices what he learns. A disciple 
of Jesus is one who responds to the Master's invi- 
tation, "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me," 
and becomes a pupil, a student, who is attentive 
and progressively learns from the Lord, his teacher. 
If he ceases to advance in learning, he ceases to be a 
disciple, ceases to be an apprentice. 

When any have become disciples, then the com- 
mand is, ''teach them," but this "teach" is alto- 
gether a different word from that in the preceding 
verse of the A. V. ; it is didasko, and does not mean 
learn ; but means teach others what you have learned. 
"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever 
I have commanded." There is the specification and 
the limitation of the teaching which men, as disciples 
of the Lord Jesus, may do. They may not teach 



Dispensation of The Gospel 189 

anything, as a part of the gospel, but that which 
Jesus Himself with His apostles and prophets 
has taught, and is recorded in the Bible. The full 
extent of the commission is to show others what 
the Lord teaches, and ''thus saith the Lord" must 
be the constant fence which the disciples may not 
pass. 

The dispensation of the gospel age, then, being 
designated in the plan of God, for the calling, trial 
and selecting of the royal priesthood, who, though 
serving an apprenticeship in this life, yet whose 
real work will be in the life to come, and the nature 
of that work being to teach all mankind and induce 
them to love and obey God, it is plain that compe- 
tency is not alone a matter of heart purity, but 
also of a right knowledge and understanding of 
the ways of the Lord. Therefore, ''to obsen^e all ' 
things whatsoever the master has commanded" 
is of the utmost importance; otherwise our 
apprenticeship will be more or less imperfect. 

And right here is the dividing line and the 
explanation of the saying of Jesus, "Many shall be 
called but few chosen." Only a few of the people, 
during all the centuries of the gospel age, who hear 
the invitation and answer, "I will follow thee 
whithersoever thou goest," keep that pledge up 
until the end. Not that the "many" deliberately 
drop ofif, for many of them doubtless have consider- 
able love for the Lord; but they fail to "press 
toward the mark for the prize." Neglecting much 
that is essential in their apprenticeship, they fail 
to qualify; they cannot be chosen, "elect," in that 



190 The Eternal Purpose 

body, **tlie royal priesthood," because they neg- 
lected to carefully observe His instructions and 
follow Him so closely as to become competent for 
for that service. They intend to be faithful and 
make their calling and election sure; but they 
neglect. They are not lost forever, not cast into outer 
darkness ; yet they fail to obtain the crown as kings 
and priests. 

As we have before seen the New Testament 
shows two distinct classes of saved ones in the 
kingdom of God : those who sit on the throne with 
Jesus, and those who stand before the throne. 

The first have crowns on their heads, the second 
have palms in their hands. To the first Jesus said, 
**Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good 
pleasure to give you the kingdom. To him that 
overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne 
(overcome how, Lord ?) even as I also overcame and 
am set down with my Father in His throne." 
Luke 12:32; Rev. 3:21. 

The second, *'A great multitude which no man 
could number of all nations and kindreds and people 
and tongues stood before the throne and before 
the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in 

their hands these are they which came out 

of great tribulation and have washed their robes 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 
Therefore they are before the throne of God and 
serve Him day and night in His temple." Rev. 
7:9-17. 

To the first Jesus said, *'Ye are the light of the 
world." And the Apostle Paul describes their 



Dispensation of The Gospel 191 

glon^ in the resurrection, as the glory of the sun, 
a Hght-giving body. 

The second are those who had covenanted with 
the Lord just the same as the first class; but their 
zeal to learn and conform exactly to the ways of the 
Lord flagging somewhat, and becoming in a degree 
worldly, they are w^amed, '^Beware lest another take 
thy crown;" but they yet fail to evince that interest 
in obtaining the exact knowledge of the ways of 
the Lord and conforming thereto, that is necessary 
to a complete overcoming of the world, and especi- 
ally the false teachings of men. They come short 
of being wholly "sanctified (separated) by the truth.'' 
Therefore they cannot be of the "elect," and others 
shall take the crowns they might have had. But 
they have believed and have had some measure 
of love; therefore though they may not sit on the 
throne with the lamb, and be light-givers, they may 
stand before the throne and be reflectors of the 
light which comes from the throne. Their glory 
is as the glory of the moon and those stars which 
in the solar system shine only as reflectors of the 
light of the sun. 



192 The Eternal Purpose 



CHAPTER XII. 

KXACT KNOWIvEDGK OF HIS WIIvIv. 

In the preceding chapters, we have noticed 
each of the dispensational divisions of time called 
ages, and these are so obvious that no one of 
fair intelligence can read the Bible without observ- 
ing them. And we have seen an intelligent, well- 
connected plan running through the whole, adapted 
to bring the human race, step by step, up to a 
correct knowledge and understanding of the charac- 
ter and purposes of the Creator. 

We have seen that in the first dispensational 
age, the antediluvians started off in good shape; 
being physically but slightly degenerated, they 
lived to great age: and by some means they had 
attained to considerable knowledge of mechanical 
arts and of astronomy. They were well informed 
as to what constituted right acting both in respect 
to the Creator and each other. But they had no 
organized human government; so there were no 
immediate penalties to be inflicted for wrongdoing; 
there were only such as the Creator would inflict in 
the day of judgment. But that divine retribution 
seemed so far off and so indistinct in the distance, 
that it had but little restraining influence on the 
majority. 

A few, however, "called upon the name of the 



Exact Knowledge of His Will 1 93 

Lord" and persevered in right living, while the 
great mass went wholly to the bad, until **the earth 
was filled with violence" and human life was not 
worth having. That age was a demonstration 
that the human race, while in a sinful state, is not 
capable of sustaining right relations, man with 
man, unless a force is present to execute adequate 
and immediate penalties for wrongdoing. 

The second, or patriarchal age, demonstrates 
to us that while human government is better than 
no government, yet, at best, it is incompetent to 
maintain strict right doing between men; and that 
it stirs up an evil ambition to hold the place of 
authority, and affords opportunity for usurpation 
of power by the vicious and most unjust persons. 
Something better than no government is needed, 
but power in the hands of fallible, sinful men cannot 
produce a perfect polit}^ by which every individual 
shall be in constant enjoyment of all his rights 
and privileges. 

The third dispensational age, the age of the 
law, as we have seen, was instituted for the declared 
purpose of establishing the fact in the minds of all 
men that Jehovah is the only true and living God : 
and for manifesting all the attributes of His char- 
acter, so that men might know Him and under- 
stand Him correctly, and so be able to harmonize 
their own lives and characters with His. 

The fourth dispensational age, w^hich we com- 
monly call the gospel age, and in which we are 
living, we have seen, is the period of time which 
God has set apart for the purpose of taking out 



194 The Eternal Purpose 

of the nations a people for His name, a royal priest- 
hood, a body of purified and prepared persons, 
of which Jesus Christ should be the head, who should 
lead the whole world of mankind to the full knowl- 
edge of all spiritual truth, at the time appointed 
by the Lord for that great work to be done. 

The fifth dispensational age, called in the Bible, 
the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of heaven, 
we have seen, is the time appointed by the Lord, 
when all power and authority having been taken 
away from sinful men will be given to and wholly 
entrusted unto the hands of those purified and 
prepared ones chosen during the preceding dispen- 
sation, the gospel age, to be members of that body 
of which Christ Jesus is the head. A body **of kings 
and priests unto God," who as kings shall reign with 
Christ, and as priests shall instruct the people 
of every age and all generations, until the earth shall 
be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, 
and every knee shall bow and every tongue shall 
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of 
God, the Father, and not an enemy remains. 

In that dispensational age, love shall be the 
sole motive of action, and exact justice and perfect 
wisdom the guides which ensure mercy to all who 
may then become truly penitent as to sin against God. 

We come now to the study of those Scriptures 
which pertain to the faith and works of righteousness 
and the methods of doing those works incumbent 
upon all who would be apprentices of Jesus. 

In view of the great diversities of opinion rife 
among Christians, on the subjects of faith and works. 



Exact Knowledge cf His Will 1 95 

a legitimate question with the honest, earnest 
student of the gospel of Jesus Christ, is, Do the 
Scriptures clearly teach that it is possible to know 
the real truth and to so distinguish between truth 
and error, that all the real apprentices (disciples) 
of Jesus Christ may see and believe so nearly alike 
in all matters, both of faith and practice, that among 
them, divisions, sects or denominations are wholly 
unnecessary ? 

What saith the word of the Lord? "If we walk 
in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship 
one with another." 1 John 1:17. That text alone 
is a sufficient answer to the question. 

As is well known by all, light, in the Bible, is the 
symbol of correct knowledge and understanding 
while darkness is the symbol of not knowing, or 
understanding. That text states the only ground 
on which true fellowship can exist. It must be 
light. How much light? Just as much light as God 
has for us on the subject, the same light, the same 
amount of light, which He has even ''as He is in 
the light.'' Is that too much? Is it too strong to 
be believed, that a disciple of Jesus may be in the 
light of the truth, just as He is in the light? It is, 
for nominal Christians; but not for those who are 
actual followers of Christ. 

The word walk is a symbol of progress; to 
*'walk in the light" is to progress in knowledge 
and understanding; and so, to **walk in the light" 
means progression in knowledge and understanding 
of the matters of faith and works; and that is the 
unceasing habit of every disciple of Jesus. For 



196 The Eternal Purpose 

if one shall cease to learn and constantly to put 
into practice what he learns, he ceases to be a 
disciple — an apprentice; no matter how much he 
may think himself a member of Christ's body, nor 
how much he may profess to be a Christian. 

Unquestionably, knowledge of the truth is 
necessary and essential to believing the truth. 
A portion of truth can be believed only when 
knowledge of that portion has been obtained; 
the whole truth, on any subject, can be believed 
only when correct knowledge of the whole subject 
has been arrived at. 

When sufficient knowledge that Jesus Christ 
is the Saviour, has entered into one's mind, and that 
one believes it with the heart (Rom. 10 :10) he at once, 
and necessarily, follows the impulse of his heart, 
and consecrates himself without reserve to the 
Saviour: that is, he sets himself apart, sanctifies 
himself to henceforth do the will of the Lord only, 
in all things. 

Belief with the heart and whole consecration 
are, by nature of the human constitution, and in 
fact, inseparably simultaneous, and together con- 
stitute the first step of discipleship. The next step 
and the next and the next, and so on and on, * 'going 
on to perfection," ''perfecting holiness," are the 
steps of discipleship taken according to the instruc- 
tions of the word of God, and in fulfillment of the 
consecration made "when the heart first believed." 

To take these steps of one's own free will, which 
is to "walk with God," correct knowledge of what 
they are, and the manner of taking them, is abso- 



Exact Knowledge of His Will 197 

lutely essential. For intention to do the will of 
the Lord without correct knowledge of what His 
will in any given case may be would result in 
placing the zealous Christian in the same condition 
as were those JeWs of whom Paul said, ''They have 
a zeal for God, but not, according to full knoivledgc.'" 
(Gr. epignosis.) Therefore they failed of their 
intention. 

We see, then, the intention may he right; but if the 
head is umnfonned, or worse yet, misinformed, the 
right thing is not done, while the wrong thing is done. 
Such a Christian is bound to be a loser of much 
that he has labored to do; for, "The fire shall try 
ever\^ man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's 
work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he 
himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire." 
ICor. 3:13-15. 

There are two words in the Greek New Testament 
as used by the apostles, which bear strong testimony 
as to the accuracy of knowledge and understanding, 
which the Lord expects the disciples of Jesus to 
attain, respecting what they shall believe and what 
they shall do, and how to do it. 

Of these two Greek words, one is gliosis, the other 
is epignosis. The latter is the same as the former 
excepting it has epi prefixed. The difference is 
that epi gives the force of increase, or addition, 
to words of this kind, so that while the simple 
word gnosis is rightly translated by the English 
word knowledge, meaning some knowledge, more 
or less, but indefinite as to accuracy, the compound 
word epignosis carries the meaning of more than 



198 The Eternal Purpose 

ordinary knowledge, such as full or accurate or 
correct knowledge. The Emphatic Diaglott gener- 
ally renders epignosis by exact knowledge. 

The Apostle Paul was a good Greek scholar, 
and he used these two words frequently and always 
with discrimination, as also did all the New Testa- 
ment writers. This is especially noticeable in 
Col. 2:2, 3, by the translation of the Emphatic 
Diaglott, "Being closely united in love and in all 
the wealth of the full assurance of the understand- 
ing to an exact knowledge (epignosis) of the secret 
of God, in which are stored all the treasures of 
wisdom and knowledge'' (gnosis). But the trans- 
lators in the A. V. did not follow the New Testament 
writers, but threw the two words into a jumble, 
as though there was no distinction of meaning. 
They seem to have been afraid to take the apostles 
at their word or to believe it possible that the 
disciples of Jesus could arrive at an accurate, 
correct or exact knowledge of the will of God in 
this life, and thereby "Walk in the light as God 
is in the light," "walk with God," so they left 
the cloud of their doubt hanging over the English 
version, obscuring the privilege which the Scrip- 
tures repeatedly affirm belongs to those who hunger 
and thirst to be right and not wrong. 

Paul prays, "that your love may yet abound 
more and more in accurate knowledge (epignosis), 
and in all perception." Phil. 1:9. And again 
he says, "I do not cease praying on your behah^ 
that you may be filled as to the exact knowledge 
(epignosis) of His will, with all spiritual wisdom 



Exact Knowledge of His Will 199 

and understanding; to walk worthy of the Lord, 
pleasing liini in all things bringing forth fruit by 
ever}^ good work, and increasing in the exact knowl- 
edge (epignosis) of God." And Peter prays, saying: 
**May favor and peace be multiplied to you by 
exact knowledge (epignosis) of God and of Jesus 
our Lord; even as His divine power has granted 
to us all things relating to life and piety, through 
the exact knowledge (epignosis) of Him .... using 
all diligence, superadd to your faith, fortitude, 
and to fortitude knowledge (gnosis) and to knowledge 
(gnosis) self-control." Here Peter uses both words 
wdth great discrimination. The translators of the 
A. V. did in one case give the correct rendering to 
epignosis. Paul was telling how the ministers 
of the Lord Jesus are regarded and treated by the 
unbelievers; he says, "As deceivers, and yet true, 
as unknown and yet well known.'' 2 Cor. 6:9. 
Both of these words, ''unknown" and *'well known," 
are the correct translation of the two Greek words, 
both from the same root: one has the privative 
a prefixed, which makes it mean unknown, the 
other is prefixed by epi which augments the mean- 
ing to well known, or accurately known. Lexicog- 
raphers give these distinctions of meaning. The 
New Testament writers very manifestly intended 
such distinction ; why did not the translators in the 
A. V. make it also. 

A partial knowledge and understanding of the 
gospel of Jesus Christ has generated many divisions, 
sects and denominations, with much bitterness. 
But the Apostle tells us that peace is multiplied, 



200 The Eternal Purpose 

not by a knowledge that is partial, but by exact 
knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. And then 
he adds that not peace only, but also all things 
relating to life and piety are granted to us through 
exact knowledge. 

How great is the privilege of the children of 
God to ''Walk in the light as God is in the hght,'' 
but which has been so long obscured by the doubts 
of the early translators, yet is now brought out by 
the labors of individual scholarship untrammeled 
by political or hierarchical authority, and nearly 
free from sectarian bias. There are several such 
translations of the Scriptures, especially of the 
New Testament which are in these days placed 
within the reach of all who hunger and thirst to 
know the master's will exactly, that they may please 
Him in all things, rather than to follow the inven- 
tions and substitutions that men have made. Thus 
we are urged to reach for and be filled with a 
correct knowledge of the divine will with all spiritual 
wisdom and understanding. 

On the other hand, we are warned of the conse- 
quences if any shall despise and refuse the full 
light of the truth, when it is within their reach, 
as it is written, "The wrath of God is revealed from 
heaven in regard to all impiety and injustice of 
those men, who through injustice suppress the 
truth .... though they knew God (but not 
fully) they did not glorify or thank Him as God; 
but became vain in their reasonings and their 
perverse hearts were darkened .... and as they 
did not choose to have God in exact knowledge 



Exact Knowledge of His Will 201 

(epignosis), God delivered them over to a worthless 
mind." Rom. 1 :18; 21 :28 (Em. Dia.) There are 
many persons of various evil tendencies, "Having 
a form of piety, but having denied its power .... 
always learning and never able to come to an 
exact knoivledge (epignosis) of the truth." 2 Tim. 
3:5-7. 

Unquestionably, very many persons have pro- 
fessed faith in Christ, who never were converted 
to Him. The motive of many isthe hope of obtaining 
some advantage, either social or political or finan- 
cial, or the ambition for leadership. All such per- 
sons, no matter what their professions may be, 
do not want to know the exact will of God ; for it is 
no part of their intention to be exact followers of 
Jesus. Many of the more able and shrewd ones, am- 
bitious of leadership, having made merchandise of 
the gospel, **by good words and fair speeches, 
deceive the hearts of the simple." Rom. 16:18. 
Some of these are so successful in their well-man- 
aged schemes that they finally come to believe that 
their imaginations are really divine inspirations; 
and so, while deceiving others, are themselves 
deceived. 2 Thes. 2 :10-13. 

These deceived deceivers have existed and 
flourished to some extent in all periods of the gospel 
age, but our Lord has especially warned us, who 
are living in the closing days of the age, that in 
these times such men will get worse and worse, 
deceiving and being deceived. They will be so 
crafty and seem to have knowledge and under- 
standing so much beyond the ordinary, and do, 



202 The Eternal Purpose 

in some cases, such unusual things, that only 
**the elect" will be entirely proof * against their 
'^strong delusions." Matt. 24:24. By the elect is 
meant those who are figuratively said to be ** sealed 
in the forehead." Rev. 7:3. That is, those who 
are following the instructions of the Holy Scriptures, 
and have attained to a correct knowledge and under- 
standing of the Divine plan, as it is in Christ Jesus. 

TO determine; between truth and error. 

There is given to the apprentices of Jesus Christ 
an infallible rule, called by the Apostle Paul, 
'^the analogy of the faith" (Rom. 12:6), by which it 
is always possible to distinguish truth from error. 
The force of the apostle's meaning is lost to Bible 
readers generally, by the unfortunate rendering 
in the A. V., which is, ''proportion of faith." The 
word analogy is the anglicized form of the Greek 
word analogian used in the text, and though a 
Greek word, it has come into such common use 
in the English language, that its meaning is fully 
known, and it is the only word really conveying 
the Apostle's meaning. 

*'The analogy of the faith" consists of certain 
foundation principles underlying the plan of salva- 
tion, with which all truths perfectly harmonize, 
and whatever doctrine or method of work does not 
perfectly harmonize with them and conform to 
them is not of God, but is the imagination of 
men and necessarily untrue. 

Whoever, among the followers of Jesus Christ, 



Exact Knowledge of His Will 203 

understandingly knows all these principles has 
within himself the power of discerning between 
truth and error, and cannot be deceived as long as 
he continues to measure every idea of his own 
and every doctrine and proposed service by them. 
The first strata of these foundation principles is, 

THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 

First. God is perfect in knowledge, understand- 
ing and wisdom. Therefore whatever plan He has 
determined upon, cannot be improved: anything 
added to it or taken away from it must be error. 

Second. He is perfect in justice, goodness and 
truth. Therefore any doctrine held by men, which 
affirms or intimates that, in the final awards, 
God will overdo, on the one hand, or on the other, 
will fall short of doing exact and full justice for 
both good and evil, or that . He will protract a 
penalty to evil out of proportion to the offense, 
under its attending circumstances, cannot be true. 

Third. He is almighty and He is faithful. 
He is able and will carry out to a finish, all His 
purposes and plans and will fulfill every promise. 
Therefore, any doctrine which intimates that 
wickedness shall not, ultimately, be wholly erased, 
or that Satan shall hold any final supremacy any- 
where in the universe, is untrue. 

Fourth. God is love. Therefore it is impossible 
that any of His purposes or plans should be founded 
on any other motive than love, and all His works 
and all His dealings with men and with angels, 



204 The Eternal Purpose 

must be designed in love. Hence ,any doctrine 
which explains the presence of evil in this present 
life; or of reward and of retribution in the life 
to come, on any other basis than love^ is necessarily 
untrue. 

The second strata of foundation principles is, 

THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

First. He is made in the intellectual and 
spiritual image and likeness of the Creator; though 
much marred by the effects of sin; yet the intel- 
lectual and spiritual attributes remain. Therefore, 
(a) he must be and remain absolutely free to choose 
and to act, without other incentive, than a sufficient 
knowledge of evil and good; of his own impurity 
and the purity and goodness of God, for him to be 
able to intelligently and of his own accord take the 
course he may choose, in respect to the Creator, 
whether of harmony or discord. (6) Every man of 
sound mind is capable of understanding God, when- 
ever he has met the conditions of heart on which 
God will fellowship with him. 1 John 1 :3-6 ; 2 :20-27. 
Rom. 10:10. (c) All disciples of Jesus become, 
thereby, children of God, as it is written, *'As many 
as received Him, to them gave He power to become 
the children of God, even as many as believe on His 
name." John 1:12. So each and every one that 
believes ''with the heart" is a child of God, whether 
a **babe" or an "elder" in Christ. A father is as 
sure to care for and keep the babes as to keep the 
elder children ; none of them will be lost nor carried 



Exact Knowledge of His Will 205 

off by the enemy through His neglect; none of 
God's children are old enough nor strong enougli 
to keep themselves from the power of the enemy ; 
all are kept, if kept at all, **by the power of God 
through faith unto salvation." 1 Pet. 1 :15. Notice 
carefully, it is through faith; not the power of men 
through some human organization : hence {d) Any 
human guardianship, organized or individual, assum- 
ing control or fencing in or to any degree, having 
in it an element of authority or paternalism over 
the children of God, is an usurpation of the divine 
prerogative and is sin. 

The third stn ta of the foundation principles is 

THE FINISHED COMPLETENESS OF THE DIVINE REVE- 
LATION. 

Revelation is complete and finished, concerning 
the relations between the Creator and the human 
race, and is set forth in the Old and New Testaments, 
the Bible. This is the unequivocal claim of the 
Scriptures for themselves, and a careful observation 
of the facts show that it is necessarily true, from 
the following considerations: First. They make 
the way of salvation perfectly plain, as, says the 
Apostle, **The Holy Scriptures which SLveableto make 
thee wise unto salvation.'' 2Tim. 3:15. ''These thing 
are written that ye might believe that Jesus 
is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, 
ye might have life through His name." John 20:31. 

Second. They are able to thoroughly equip the 
earnest disciples for doing everything in the gospel 



206 The Eternal Purpose 

service, and for doing it just as the Master wants it 
done, as, says the Apostle, ''All scripture, given by 
inspiration of God, is profitable for doctrine, for 
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- 
ness ; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly 
furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. 3:16, 17. 
"Even as His divine power has granted unto us 
all things, relating to life and piety, through the 
full knowledge of Him.'" 2 Pet. 1:3. (Em. Dia.) 

Third. The apostles fully set forth the gospel 
in their day; as Paul says, "I became a servant, 
according to that stewardship of God which is 
given to me for you to fully declare the word of 
God." Col. 1:25. (Em. Dia.) 

All things, then, relating to life and piety, having 
been fully declared, it follows that no more is 
necessary. Therefore, all "traditions," such as are 
the support of Romanism; and all "revelations" 
so claimed, which are the support of Romanism 
and Mormonism; also all of the apocryphal books 
and "The Book of Mormon" the claiming of which 
to be additional revelation from God, are, on the 
face of them, declarations of the insufficiency of 
the Bible, and are therefore, falsehoods and decep- 
tions. 

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the 
Most High shall abide under the shadow of the 
Almighty. He shall deliver thee from the snare 
of the fowler and from the pestilence of wickedness ; 
His truth shall be thy shield and buckler." 



The Royal Priesthood 207 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD. 

**You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, an 
holy nation, a people for a purpose." 1 Pet. 2:9. 
(Em. Dia.) 

The members of the body of Christ are repre- 
sented in type, by the priesthood of the sons of 
Aaron ; while Aaron himself, as high priest, typified 
the Lord Jesus Christ. The services, by which 
Aaron and his sons were installed in the typical 
priesthood, indicate to us what things are necessary 
for us, that we may become members of the royal 
priesthood, which is '*The prize of the high calling 
of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:4,) the special 
object of the gospel dispensation. 

The directions which the Lord gave to Moses for 
the installation of the priesthood are recorded in 
the 29th chapter of Exodus; and the carrying of 
them out is written in the 8th chapter of Leviticus. 
First, we must know that Moses represented the 
law, that law which Paul says is the schoolmaster 
to bring us to Christ. Moses was the impersonation 
of that law, and we see him acting as the school- 
master, himself being instructed by the Lord. 

First, Moses washed them. This was not bap- 
tism, neither immersion nor sprinkling; it was a 
good washing, to remove external impurities. It 



208 The Eternal Purpose 

typified the word of God, the revealed truth, acting 
as a cleansing power, freeing all who come unto 
Christ from the impurities of false beliefs and wrong 
practices of every nature. As Jesus said to His 
disciples, ''Now are ye clean through the word 
which I have spoken unto you." John 15:3; 17:17. 
Eph. 5:26. And that wavShing typified the cleans- 
ing effect of the gospel being preached by the 
faithful ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ. When 
the washing was accomplished (when the word of 
truth has taken effective hold), then the garments 
of priesthood were placed upon them. These 
represent the robes of righteousness which cover the 
saints of the Lord, and in which alone they accept- 
ably serve Him. Then they immediately made 
the sacrifice for sin, which typified the destruction 
of the carnal mind, ''For they that are Christ's 
have crucified the flesh with the passions and lusts." 
Gal. 5 :24. At the same time they made the whole 
burnt offering, which typified the entire and unre- 
served consecration of the priesthood, body, soul 
and spirit unto the Lord, to do His will only, in all 
things, until all their powers in the flesh are con- 
sumed in His service. At once, also, with these 
sacrifices came the sacrifice of what in the A. V. is 
called "The ram of consecration." It was killed 
just as were the sin offering and the whole burnt 
offering. Then Moses smeared some of the blood 
on the right ear and on the thumb of the right 
hand and on the great toe of the right foot of each 
of the priests. Blood that was shed in sacrifice 
denotes that the life is given up in the service of 



The Royal Priesthood 209 

God ; therefore the blood put upon these members 
denoted that the hearing of the ear, the works of 
the hands, and the steps of the feet shall be only in 
His service, under the blood. Then Moses took the 
parts that were to be burnt upon the altar, as a 
sacrifice unto the Lord, together with one piece 
each of the different kinds of unleavened bread, 
and placed the whole on the hands of each of the 
priests, which filled both hands, and they waved 
them **for a wave offering before the Lord." The 
significance of this was that the Lord offered them 
their hands full of sacrificing service, and they, 
putting out their hands and taking the proffered 
sacrifice and waving it ''before the Lord," signified 
their acceptance of the service assigned to them. 
Then Moses ''took them from off their hands and 
burnt them on the altar, upon the burnt offering. 
Then Moses took some of the anointing oil, and 
some of the blood which was upon the altar, and 
sprinkled it on Aaron and on his sons, and on their 
garments, and sanctified Aaron and his garments, 
and his sons, and his son's garments with them." 
And Aaron and his sons remained within the taber- 
nacle seven days, and they ate the flesh of the ram 
and the unleavened bread that was in the basket. 

And this seven days' continuance in the taber- 
nacle denoted that their priesthood was to con- 
tinue all the days of their lives: for the number 
seven in the Scriptures denotes the whole of whatever 
it is applied to. 

The words consecrate and consecration found in 
Ex. 29, and Lev. 8, do not at all translate the Hebrew 



210 The Eternal Purpose 

words instead of which they stand in the A. V. No 
one act was the consecrating act, but the process 
from beginning to end, from the washing of Aaron 
and his sons to the close of the seven days abode 
in the tabernacle constituted the consecration. 
The words, *'Thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his 
sons,'' is an unfortunate rendering, for it entirely 
leaves out the idea contained in the Hebrew original 
of the text. The literal translation (which is also 
given as a marginal reading), is, ''Thou shalt fill 
the hands of Aaron and his sons." This act being a 
part only of the consecration service. 

When Moses took the rump and the right shoulder 
and the two kidneys and all the fat, and one piece 
each of three kinds of unleavened bread, and placed 
them all together on the extended hands of each of 
the priests, it was to say, You have as much to do 
as the strength which God has given to you is able 
to accomplish. And by waving it before the Lord, 
they each one answered, I will do it, God helping me. 

No part of the service could be left out. If any 
was left out there was no consecration; and if no 
consecration, there was no priest; there would be 
none to bring the people to the Lord. 

To what extent these ceremonies were rightly 
understood by men of those days we are not in- 
formed. So far as the application was to them- 
selves, they no doubt had a correct understanding; 
but the writing of them was not for them alone, 
**for whatsoever things were written aforetime, 
were written for our learning^ that we through 



The Royal Priesthood 2 1 1 

patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have 
hope." Rom. 15:4. 

Following the type through we may summarize, 
the instruction as intended for the disciples of 
Jesus Christ. Every follower of Christ, 

First — must be obedient to the word of the 
Lord, ceasing from all impure habits and practices. 
Rom. 6:17, 18. 

Second — must be covered with righteousness, 
living a life of purity in the sight of the world, 
according to the purity of God. 

Third — must mortify (put to death) the deeds 
of the flesh. Rom. 6 :lll-4. 

Fourth — must consecrate body, soul and spirit 
to the Lord, and serve Him only to the end. Rom. 
12:1, 2. 

Fifth — must accept the proffered priesthood. 
1. Pet. 2:5, 9. 

Sixth — as the priest's garments were sprinkled 
with the holy oil and the blood from off the altar, 
so must our righteousness, not be self-righteousness, 
but bear the marks of the Holy Spirit, and of faith 
in the atonement that is by "the precious blood 
of Christ." . . 

Seventh — as the priests abode in the tabernacle 
seven days, we must be faithful unto the end." 
Rev. 3:21. 

It will be noticed that though the priests, the 
sons of Aaron, had their clothing sprinkled with the 
holy oil and with blood, the anointing oil was not 
poured on their heads. This was done only to 
Aaron, the high priest, who typified our Lord Jesus 



212 The Eternal Purpose 

Christ, of whom the Apostle said, *'God anointed 
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with 
power." Acts 10:38. ''For He whom God hath 
sent speaketh the words of God ; for God giveth not 
the spirit by measure. The Father loveth the Son 
and hath given all things unto His hand.'' John 3 :34. 

And this plenary anointing of Christ was 
prefigured in the anointing of Aaron, "And he 
poured the anointing oil upon Aaron's head and 
anointed him, to sanctify him." *'The precious 
ointment upon the head, that ran down upon 
the beard, even Aaron's beard; that went down to 
the skirts of his garments." Lev. 8:12; Ps. 133:2. 
The sons of Aaron forming the body of priesthood, 
of which Aaron was the head, received their anoint- 
ing through the head, the high priest, as members 
of his body. So the members of the body of which 
Christ is the head receive the anointing of the Holy 
Spirit only by virtue of their being members of 
that body, as the Apostle says, "The anointing 
which ye have received from Him abideth in you." 
1 John. 2 :27. 

Understanding then, the meaning of the symbolic 
acts by which the Aaronic priests were installed, 
and the teaching office of that service in its appli- 
cation to the royal priesthood, of which Christ 
Jesus is the head, let us now study the qualifications 
necessary in any person who would be a member of 
that body, a disciple of Jesus Christ, as shown in 
the New Testament, at the same time keeping in 
view those symbols which were written as guide- 



The Royal Priesthood 213 

posts from God, that we might not go astray into 
some vain dekision. 

Because man is created in the image and likeness 
of the Creator, each one is disposed to have things 
all his own way. This disposition is right and good, 
if guided by perfect love; but if it acts out of that 
sphere, it breaks and destroys harmony with God — 
and that is sin. It matters not whether the fracture 
is great or small, whether the sin be as a mountain 
or a mole hill, discord with the Creator is brought 
about thereby. But discord in the family of God 
can not be endured ; lost harmony must be restored 
or the contumaciously discordant ones must be cut 
off. For this reason the Creator says to all His 
adopted children, 

''be ye holy for I AM HOLY.'' 

At this point definition of terms is of the utmost 
importance; for a somewhat troublesome tangle 
of doctrine has arisen among devout Christians 
over the words holiness, sanctification, consecration, 
justification, repentance and faith. 

The words holiness, sanctification and consecra- 
tion, as used in the Bible, are synonyms, having 
exactly the same meaning. The first is old English, 
the second is ecclesiastical Latin, the third is classical 
Latin, and both are anglicized by adding n to the 
Latin words. They are used in the Old Testament, 
quite without discrimination, to translate the 
Hebrew word kah-dash. In Ex. 29:21 that word is 
rendered hallowed (made holy), in Ex. 30:29 it is 



214 The Eternal Purpose 

rendered sanctify, and in the next verse it is rendered 
consecrate, all referring to the very same thing. 
And so through the Old Testament, wherever one of 
these words is used, either of the others would give 
the very same sense, and translate the Hebrew 
word just as well. In the Greek version of the 
Old Testament, the LXX, hagiazo is the word used 
mostly to translate the Hebrew, kah-dash, and it is 
used in the New Testament in the same sense, and 
in our A. V. it is twice rendered hallowed, Matt. 6 :9 ; 
Luke 11 :2, and once ''let him be holy'' Rev. 22 :11, and 
every other time it is rendered sanctify. So we see 
to give the words sanctify, consecrate, holy, different 
meanings is without Bible authority and indeed 
contrary to the intention to the divine word. 
Therefore, to speak of ''whole consecration'' as a 
preliminary step to becoming ''wholly sanctified'' 
is a misconception, and altogether wrong. 

Justification is also an ecclesiastical Latin word 
anglicized. It translates the Greek word dikiaosis, 
which, as used in the New Testament, means "being 
esteemed just" by the Lord, that is, fit for eternal 
life; or, in the American phrase, "all right" for 
eternal life. 

Repentance translates the Greek metanoia, 
meaning "afterthought, a change of mind on 
reflection'' and a consequent change of practice. 

The words faith and belief, as used in the New 
Testament, are exactly synonymous, and both 
translate the Greek word pistis. The sense in 
which these words are used in the gospel is thus 
defined: "Faith is the substance (the ground work) 



The Royal Priesthood 215 

of things hoped for, the evidence "(proof) of thmgs 
not seen." Heb. 11 :1. It is then evident that there 
can be no such thing as ''bhnd faith" in any dis- 
ciple of Jesus Christ. The gospel demands no 
belief in its verity until evidences of its truth are 
duly exhibited. To believe on little or no evidence, 
is not faith, but credulity, and that is shameful; 
for it swallows down errors and truths without 
distinction — an indigestible mass of confusion and 
discord. 

In gospel work the first indispensable requisite 
is to attract the earnest attention of the sinner, and 
induce him to a close consideration of a simple, 
clear showing that salvation from sin is by faith in 
Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God ; and that there 
is no other name under heaven, given among men, 
whereby we may be saved (Acts 4:12) and not 
until the attention is concentrated, and the judg- 
ment is active, does faith become possible. Any- 
thing short of it, any ''professing religion" without 
it, is nothing else but contemptible credulity or 
base hypocrisy. 

Faith having been established on the knowledge 
of evidences, then repentance, as to former habits, 
both of thought and action, which were contrary 
to the gospel of Christ, immediately follows; and 
the taking up of those habits, both of thought and 
action, which do accord with the gospel, begins 
at once. 

Repentance is not alone the mental change of 
belief; it includes a thorough change of heart, "For 
with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness." 



216 The Eternal Purpose 

Rom. 10 :10. That is, if the mental conviction of the 
truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ is not accompa- 
nied with the love of the heart ; if the Saviour is not 
loved when He is believed to be the Saviour, that 
belief is of no avail, for, says the Apostle, "Though I 
have all faith, so I could remove mountains, and 
have not love, I am nothing." 1 Cor. 13:2. 

It is a law of our constitution, having no exception, 
that the union of faith and love generates devotion. 
That is, a consecration of one's self to the object of 
faith and love must accompany that faith and love ; 
they can not exist without it. When Saul of 
Tarsus, going on his way to Damascus, was halted 
by a vision of Jesus Christ, it is not probable that 
he realized fully all the mental and spiritual emotions 
which filled and thrilled and actuated him; but 
he at once cried out, "Lord, what wilt thou have 
me to do?" He devoted himself immediately to 
the Lord Jesus. So does every sinner, as a percep- 
tion of the goodness and mercy of God in Christ 
Jesus dawns upon his soul. He never fails to set 
himself apart to the service of his Saviour, just as 
Saul did. He can not fail, for that is an integral 
part of his salvation and the spontaneous action 
of a loving heart. 

If he is converted to the Lord, he is converted 
away from those things that are hateful to the Lord. 
Whatever he believes to be sin becomes at once 
most loathsome to him, because he knows sin is 
loathsome to God. He sets himself apart, sancti- 
fies, consecrates, hallows himself to the Lord, and 
the Lord, who has said, "Him that cometh unto me 



The Royal Priesthood 2 1 7 

I will in nowise cast out" (John 6:87), accepts his 
consecration, and so the believing penitent be- 
comes at once holy unto the Lord. 

There is, however, a very wide difference in the 
clearness of apprehension with which various persons 
regard sin on the one hand and purity on the other ; 
and difference of apprehension in these things will 
make a difference in their attainments and Christian 
character. 

One person there may be, who, realizing quite 
acutely that he is a sinner and unfit for association 
with the pure, begins in earnest to pray for pardon, 
and to say, "God be merciful to me a sinner." 
But instead of immediate relief and a sense of 
divine pardon and friendship, there comes to him 
a more vivid perception of the enormity of his 
sins; and that realization grows as he prays, and 
still grows; and sins long unthought of and quite 
forgotten rise like specters saying. Here I am, will 
you confess the wrong? Will you make restitution 
for the injury? And then public confession of 
repentance and faith in Jesus Christ seems more than 
he can do. And, added to these, may be, are con- 
ceptions of certain hard and peculiar services which 
he imagines the Lord will require of him: such 
perhaps, as that he should go as a missionary to the 
savages of darkest Africa or the islands of the sea. 
All these stand before his mind seeming to him 
as real conditions to which he must submit, and 
which he must carry out, or his sins can have no 
pardon. vStep by step he yields to the terms, as 
they appear to his mind; one after another he 



218 The Eternal Purpose 

accepts the conditions ; his last opposition goes ; his 
last resistance ceases; he confesses the wrongs; 
he makes restitution for the injuries he has done. 
He publicly confesses faith in Christ Jesus and 
obedience to God ; he extends his hands, as it were, 
to lay hold of the burdensome service, ''service of 
sacrifice,'' which he had imagined was required of 
him, and with all his heart he says, ''Lord I will do 
it, be thou my helper/' And then whether in the 
providence of God, his expectations of service are 
exactly realized or not, he is ready for that or any 
work, and goes right about doing what he finds at 
hand to do, persuading others to love and obey 
the Lord. 

It is a case of radical and complete change; 
nothing remains in him of that former disposition 
to do things which he knows are sin. That "old 
man of sin" is dead, cast out; and a new man in 
Christ Jesus, "created anew unto good works'' 
(obedience), now stands before God pardoned, re- 
ceived into divine fellowship. He is holy; he is 
wholly sanctified ; nothing remains but that he shall 
go on "from strength to strength, ""perfect holiness 
in the fear of the Lord" as from day to day the 
knowledge of God's ways open to his understanding. 
Or in accordance with the symbols, he has been 
washed and made clean by the word of the Lord ; 
he has been clothed in the robes of the priesthood — 
the garments of righteousness, in which he can 
acceptably serve the Lord; he has made the sin- 
offering and is dead unto sin; he has made "the 
whole burnt offering" of unreserved consecration 



. The Royal Priesthood 219 

to the Lord; he has extended his hands unto the 
Lord and undertaken the service of sacrifice to 
the full extent of the ability given to him, and has 
entered — has been received — into *'the house of the 
Lord," the fellowship of God, there to abide. 

But there are many persons, indeed the great 
majority of those who profess the name of Christ 
Jesus, who do not go through so thorough a change 
at the first. This is owing to a lower, a less clear, 
apprehension of what true discipleship to Jesus 
really is. Such an one, conscious of his sins and his 
lost condition, thinks of little else than getting his 
sins pardoned, in order that he may escape a pun- 
ishment which he fears. And having been made 
to believe, through erroneous teachings, that if he 
only, "repents of his sins and believes that he is 
forgiven, then he is forgiven in fact, and justified, 
and on the road to heaven." But he has thought 
little or nothing of being himself washed by the 
word of God, or of being clothed in the garments of 
priesthood; all that, he thinks, is for some other 
man, who is hired and paid for doing the gospel 
work. He has not thought of the carnal mind being 
put to death, nor of being wholly set apart, as a 
whole burnt offering on the altar. And so of 
course the Lord could not fill his hands with the 
service of offering acceptable sacrifices, nor take 
him unto the sanctuary. But he has joined a church 
and goes on happy in the supposition that his sins 
are forgiven, and that if he should die he would go 
straight to heaven. He pays what he thinks is 
his share of church expenses, and attends the church 



220 The Eternal Purpose 

services. He believes that he would do the will 
of the Lord in almost anything, if he was sure he knew 
what it was. He attends, perhaps with diligence, 
to worldly business, and strives to acquire property, 
hoping and believing that getting money and giving 
liberally to religious enterprises is a fair offset for 
his inability to tell out of his own heart the story 
of redeeming love; though he can talk fluently 
on many secular subjects, and perhaps, tell a funny 
story to amuse the company. He enjoys a good 
joke and the companionship of jokers; he reads 
popular novels, but seldom reads the Bible and can 
understand but little when he does read it. He 
believes it to be the proper thing to talk of salvation 
and urge sinners to repent at church, and when 
revival meetings are being held ; but thinks it is 
very improper and disagreeable to bring up such 
subjects at social gatherings, or at any time or 
place not especially set apart for that kind of talk. 
He is conscious that he sins every day, and therefore 
concludes that every one does. He hears, perforce, 
somebody talking about ''sanctification," ''holiness 
to the Lord," ** perfect love that caste th out fear," 
but says he does not understand it, and can not 
believe there is any such condition in this life ; but 
thinks that in the life to come there probably is. 
He concludes that persons who talk about holiness — 
sanctification — and insist that it is the necessary 
status of every follower of Jesus, must be "off their 
base" — ''cranks." 

At last, however, some of these "cranks" hold 
a "hohness meeting." He is induced to attend, 



The Royal Priesthood 221 

and he hears them read from the words of the Lord, 
**We beseech you, brethren, and exli/3rt you, by 
the Lord Jesus, that as ye have receiv^ed of us how 
ye ought to walk and to please God .... for this is 

the will of God, your sanctification for God 

hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holi- 
ness." 1 Thess. 4 :l-7. 

He has read these words time and again, but 
somewhow they seem to have a meaning and a 
force now that he never noticed before. The 
meeting adjourns to another day, and he goes away 
wdth a feeling that to be a follower of Christ means 
more than he had ever thought. But then, was he 
not already saved ? If he should die now, would he 
not go to heaven? Surely, sanctification, holiness, 
can not be the absolutely necessary requisite for 
salvation. 

With these thoughts he goes to the next meeting- 
and they read "Follow peace with all men, and 
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.'' 
Heb. 12:14. Ah, then, that does seem to say very 
plainly that holiness is essential to salvation. But 
while they exhort, and keep on reading from the 
word of the Lord, and it says, Jesus "was holy, 
harmless and undefiled," and then to clinch all, "if 
any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of 
His." In that case any who are not holy, not 
sanctified in Christ Jesus, are not His people at all. 
So he reasons to himself and then he recalls the 
words of Jesus saying, "If any man come to me, 
and hate not his father and mother, and wife and 
children, and brethren and sisters, yea and his own 



222 The Eternal Purpose 

life also, he can not be my disciple/' **And who- 
soever does not bear his cross and come after me can 
not be my disciple.'' Luke 14:26, 27. And again, 
**He that loveth father or mother more than me 
is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter 
more than me is not worthy of me; and he that 
taketh not his cross and followeth me is not worthy 
of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it; and 
he that loseth his life, for my sakcy shall find it." 

The subject sinks deeply into his mind. The 
brethren who are thus preaching that sanctification 
is essential, showing hy the Scriptures that without 
it none shall see the Lord, tell him that sanctifica- 
tion is *'a second blessing," that he has already, 
at some time in the past, experienced the forgiveness 
of his sins, which is the * 'first blessing," and that he 
must seek for the blessing of sanctification ; that it 
is bestowed on those who especially seek it from the 
Lord, in just the same way as the first blessing of 
the forgiveness of sins was sought for and be- 
stowed by the Lord. Only they don't read this 
second blessing idea from the Bible. 

He concludes, therefore, that he will seek for 
this blessing also. But he finds it no easy matter 
to make a complete dedication, a complete set- 
ting apart of himself to the Lord; giving up 
all his worldly hopes and associations that have 
been his pleasure, and straightening up wrongs 
he has done, and confess that though he has 
professed to be a Christian, it was not the real 
Christ life that he had been living. But he finally 
overcomes and makes the unreserved dedication. 



The Royal Priesthood 223 

And now, for the first time, he has the soHd founda- 
tion of God's word, that he is accepted, and he is 
blessed indeed. His soul is full of joy as he realizes 
that with all his heart he is ready for anything, 
easy or hard, among loving friends or among 
savages of the wild woods, to live or to die ; anything, 
anywhere, for Him who loved him and redeemed 
him with His own precious blood, and whom he 
now loves more than all else that is dear to his heart. 

What, now, is the difference between what was 
called "the first blessing," which made only **a 
professor of religion," and that called ''the second 
blessing" which so transformed the person? 

It must not be forgotten that holiness, sancti- 
fication, consecration and dedication have no difference 
of meaning in the Bible, which is, set apart, wholly 
and solely to the will and ser^dce of the Lord. 

What is sanctified is holy ; what is not sanctified 
is not holy; it is unholy. Now answer: Can there 
be unholy things in heaven? Can unholy persons 
be taken to dwell eternally with the saints in the 
presence of God? If not, how could any one who 
has not received **the second blessing" be saved? 
And again, will He that is perfect in goodness and 
justice forgive the sins (''first blessing") and yet 
damn the soul because "the second blessing" has 
not been attained? Such doctrine reduces itself 
to the absurd ; it can not bear the light. It has its 
origin solely in that darkness of understanding 
which has not comprehended the meaning of the 
word repentance, which always signifies not only 
sorrow, but also that contrition of mind which 



224 The Eternal Purpose 

reverses the actions ; that, whereas the soul had been 
in rebelHon against God, it comes to submission 
and obedience; that as it had been devoted to its 
own gratifications, it henceforth is devoted, sancti- 
fied, hallowed, set apart to the will and service of 
the Lord. And that devotion, setting apart unto 
the Lord, is sanctification ; and without it no amount 
of sorrow over sins constitutes ''Godly repentance 
not to be repented of." The Lord has devoted 
Himself to man: He is holy to man; and when a 
man devotes himself to the Lord, in Christ Jesus, 
he is accepted and is holy unto the Lord. 

There is then no such distinction in the gospel 
of Jesus Christ as a first blessing of pardoned sins 
and a second blessing of sanctification. And the 
teaching that consecration is a preliminary step to 
obtaining sanctification, is simply an example of the 
wildness to which *'zeal without knowledge" will 
run. 

When a sinner believes the gospel and repents, 
he at the same time dedicates himself to the Lord, 
as far as his knowledge and understanding of the 
service goes. If he already has a pretty full knowl- 
edge and understanding of the terms of salvation, 
his consecration (sanctification) will be compre- 
hensive in the same ratio ; but if his understanding is 
quite limited, as it were to **the first principles" of 
the gospel, there will yet remain much for him to 
accomplish in the way of * 'perfecting holiness" — 
that is, perfecting his separation from the ways of 
men and joining himself to the ways of the Lord. 

Nowhere in the Scriptures is there an intimation 



The Royal Priesthood 225 

of two parties of believers in Christ, one "justified" 
only, and the other both justified and sanctified. 
But all are spoken of as holy ; even the Corinthians 
to whom the Apostle says, **And I, brethren, could 
not speak unto 3^ou as spiritual, but as unto carnal, 
as unto babes in Christ .... for ye are yet carnal; 
for whereas there is among you envying and strife, 
are ye not carnal, and walk as men ? For while one 
saith, I am of Paul: and another, I am of ApoUos, 
are ye not carnal?" But in addressing his epistle to 
them, he writes, ''Unto the church of God which is 
at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus 
called saints." 1 Cor. 1 :2 ; 2 :l-4. 

The carnahty of which the Apostle accuses them 
was not that of vile intentions. With them it was 
largely because of ignorance, having never before 
been taught that personal preferences and division 
into parties, after the manner of the worldly, were 
contrary to the essential principles of the gospel 
and destructive of that oneness which is the inefface- 
able mark of that body of which Christ Jesus is the 
head. 

Sanctification is a plane of daily living and 
progress in righteousness, and upon which God 
justifies a man, that is, says he is "all right," and 
below which plane no man can be justified ; for he is 
not all right. It is the plane on which all "good 
works" are done, that is, all works of obedience to 
the Lord which are done in the spirit of Christ ; that 
spirit which says, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O 
God," from giving a cup of cold water as a disciple, 
to losing the life for His name's sake. 



226 The Eternal Purpose 

All the disciples of our Lord Jesus, who were 
with Him when He was in the flesh, were set apart 
to Him, were sanctified to Him in their own minds 
and hearts, and were chosen and accepted by 
Him. They beheved without a doubt that He 
was *'the Christ, the Son of the living God." And 
they were entirely ready to follow Him; but they 
were yet, in many respects, in bondage to Jewish 
traditions and things that from their childhood 
they had been taught to believe; such as that the 
law of Moses in all its parts was intended to be in 
force perpetually; to be observed for all time in all 
nations by all men, if they would obey the only true 
and living God. To be separated to Christ, it was 
therefore necessary that they should be separated 
from all such ideas, and a correct knowledge of the 
truth only could do that. Therefore Jesus prayed 
to the Father in their behalf, saying, "Sanctify 
them (separate them) through thy truth; thy word 
is truth, as thou hast sent me into the world, even 
so have I also sent them into the world, and for 
their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be 
sanctified through the truth." Here our Lord 
Jesus declared the truth to be the instrument neces- 
sary to accomplish that sanctification. And then 
remembering the thousands who believe on Him, 
during the centuries of the gospel dispensation. 
He continues, ''Neither pray I for these alone, but 
for them also which shall believe on me through 
their word." John 17 :17-20. 

The sanctification of the disciples of Jesus never 
precedes but always follows a knowledge of the 



The Royal Priesthood 227 

truth and can not progress faster than knowledge 
and understanding of the gospel, and the duties and 
privileges of discipleship increases. 

Let this not be misunderstood, so far as the 
intentions of the heart are concerned, sanctification, 
or separation unto the Lord, is accomplished in one 
moment, but that is only the beginning. After 
that there follows the whole train of divine truths, 
things both of faith and of practice, each one of 
which calls for a practical separation from the error 
and to the truth. And as these come within the 
discernment of a disciple of Jesus they are often 
met with dismay, through the weakness of the 
flesh, and a new struggle ensues, and a new victory 
must be obtained before further spiritual progress 
can be made, or indeed, that the spiritual ground 
already attained can be longer held. For victory 
must be had in every contest or divine help is, 
after awhile, withdrawn, and a spiritual retreat, 
a losing ground, is inevitable. 

A few enthusiasts have claimed, as the gift of 
God through prayer, a height of spirituality which 
places them above all trials and temptations, and 
that they are free from them, so that *'the very in- 
stinct of self defense is entirely removed." And 
they call it ''sanctification.'' The idea is indeed to 
be found in the dreamy teaching of Buddhism, a 
religion originated by Gautama, about five or six 
hundred years before Christ. But there is no in- 
timation in the Scriptures of God that any follower 
of the Lord Jesus ever, in this life, gets to a spiritual 
height beyond the condition of trials and hard 



228 The Eternal Purpose 

struggles and the liability of saying and doing 
things that are not the most discreet. This is not 
because the heart is wrong before God, but because 
of the weakness of the flesh; not many are born 
with that equal poise which makes few mistakes. 
Years after Peter had been preaching the gospel, 
with the power of the Holy Spirit, he made a 
serious blunder, for which Paul sharply rebuked 
him. Gal. 2:11-14. It happened because the 
man-fearing spirit, for a little while, got the upper 
hand of him, and yet, years before, he had been 
filled with the Holy Spirit, and for all that time he had 
wholly been set apart to the Lord, wholly sanctified. 
But he got the victory again, and he afterward 
speaks of "Brother Paul" with whom he had re- 
mained in closest fellowship. 

Since then the disciples of Jesus, according to 
His own declaration, are separated unto the Lord, 
sanctified, * 'Through the truth," it follows neces- 
sarily, that ^'perfecting holiness in the fear of the 
Lord," consists in gaining a correct knowledge of the 
truth, as it is in Christ Jesus, and being obedient 
thereto with all the heart, item by item, truth by 
truth, as knowledge of the truth increases. Hence 
the apostle says, ''Giving all diligence, add to your 
faith boldness, and to boldness, knowledge." 2 
Pet. 1 :5. 



The Sabbath of The Lord 229 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE SABBATH OI^ THE IvORD. 

The Hebrew word sabbath means i^esi: a ceasing 
from labor or from whatever any one may have been 
doing. 

In chapters three and four of the epistle to the 
Hebrews, the Apostle exhorts all the disciples of 
Jesus to take care lest there should be in any a disbe- 
lieving heart; for we have become partakers with 
Christ, if indeed, we hold fast our confidence unto 
the end, as at the beginning. For we having believed 
enter into the rest of God, namely, that rest of 
God from all His works, as it has been written, 
*'God rested the seventh day from all His works." 
The Lord offered that rest to the Israelites, and 
though they in a manner kept one day in seven, 
by God's appointment, as if in imitation of the rest 
of God from all His works, they utterly failed 
to cease from their own works and devices and enter 
into God's rest, because of their unbelief. And 
it is only by faith, undoubting confidence, in every 
word of the Lord, that rest with God (sabbath- 
keeping) can be entered into. 

The children of Israel were especially prepared 
to appreciate the thought of rest, by their terrible 
experience of toil as bond slaves in Egypt ; but 
they carried the idea no further than that of physical 



230 The Eternal Purpose 

rest and freedom from the task-master's lash. 
They did not wish to cease from their own devisings 
and ways and devote themselves to the ways of 
God, as God had ceased from His creative work 
and devoted Himself to the development of humanity. 
They lusted after the flesh pots of Egypt, and 
''they murmured against God." They had been 
delivered from Pharaoh's army ''by the power of 
God," but when they came to the borders, they 
were afraid to enter the promised land, because they 
did not trust the promise of God to deliver them 
from enemies there. At last, however, after suffering 
great toils and weary journeys, as the result of 
choosing their own ways instead of God's ways, 
they followed Joshua into the land of promise, 
but still would not cease from their own ways and 
trust wholly to God's ways: so they failed to 
enter His rest — His sabbath. 

Referring to these, the Apostle says, "Seeing, 
therefore, that some must enter in, and they to 
whom it was first preached entered not in because 
of unbelief ; again He appoints a certain day, saying 
in David, To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden 
not your hearts; for if Joshua had given them rest. 
He would not afterward have spoken of another 
day. There remains, therefore, a rest (sabbath- 
keeping) to the people of God. For he that is en- 
tered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his 
own works, as God did from His." Heb. 4:7-10. 

The plain meaning of the Apostle is, that sab- 
bath-keeping does not consist in the observance of 
one twenty-four-hour day in seven only, as a time 



The Sabbath of The Lord 231 

of rest from our own works, but of seven days in 
the week, and that continuously. For he that by 
faith has entered into God's rest has indeed ceased 
from devising ways to save himself or to save others, 
or to promote the cause of the Lord in the world : 
and he rests in God's ways, having come to the 
full conviction that ''The way of the Lord is per- 
fect" and cannot be improved, indeed that it is 
the only way to accomplish the intention of God. 
Therefore any and all work done in any human 
devised way will not accomplish the purpose of 
God, and the results of all such labor must perish 
when tried by the fire. 1 Cor. 3 :13-15. 

It is a fact that the Creator had devoted His 
seventh day to the development of the human race. 
And it was His desire that men should, on their 
part, devote the same time to Him, which was their 
reasonable service, that they might come to know 
Him and the purposes for which He had created 
them. But as the seventh day, the sabbath of 
the Lord, embraces the entire period of man's 
probationary state, they could not have been taught 
that one twenty-four-hour day in seven was all the 
time they need to so employ. ** Enoch walked with 
God three hundred years," and to him entering 
God's rest meant the devotion of every hour of 
every day to what he learned God wanted him to 
do, and to the doing of it in God's way. And "Noah 
walked with God" while around him was a howling 
tempest of violence, for all flesh had corrupted 
God's way so that He destroyed them from off the 
earth. Abraham believed God ; when he was called 



232 The Eternal Purpose 

to go out into a place which he should after receive 
for an inheritance obeyed: and he went out, not 
knowing whither he went. But he rested in the 
promise of God, for he had entered into that rest 
as was proved when called on to offer up his son 
Isaac, the son of the promise. Isaac learned and 
entered into that rest; and so did Jacob, and 
Joseph, too, for by resting in the faith of God's 
promises he overcame the dazzling temptations 
of Egypt. 

And so a few individuals only, all along down 
the centuries from Adam to Moses, entered and 
abode in the rest of God, while the world of humanity 
went wildly after their own imaginations, and 
the great multitude of the people of every tongue 
and tribe and family lost even the conception of 
the divine rest. 

But the knowledge of that peace of God which 
passeth all understanding, that spiritual sabbath- 
keeping which Enoch had known, and by which 
he won **the testimony that he pleased God,'' 
that rest of faith, that trust in God which sustained 
Noah and Abraham, must be brought within the 
comprehension of all people and made the possible 
possession of every soul that would choose to return 
its allegiance to the Creator. And for the accom- 
plishment of that purpose^ the seventh-day sabbath 
was instituted. 

One month after the memorable night in which 
the Israelites were delivered from Egypt, they arrived 
at the wilderness of Sin. They had seen the waters 
of the Red Sea divide and stand up as a wall on 



The Sabbath of The Lord 233 

either side, leaving a dry road in the bottom, over 
which they safely traveled with their little ones 
and all their cattle, and they had seen their enemies, 
the Egyptian army, destroyed in the attempt to 
follow them. They had seen the bitter waters 
of Marah made sweet : and they had been refreshed 
by the palm trees and water springs of Elim. All 
this time the pillar of cloud led the way and shielded 
them from the scorching rays of the sun by day, 
and every night the pillar of fire, hanging in the 
sky, scattered the darkness and attested that the 
Almighty God was with them to show them the 
wa}^ and protect them from harm. Did they not 
have sufficient evidence? Would they not hence- 
forth preserve their minds in peace, in the confidence 
that He, who had done, and was still, day by day 
and night by night, doing such wonders for them, 
would surely continue His Almighty care over 
them and, without fail, supply all their needs ? 

When they arrived at the wilderness of Sin, 
which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth 
day of the second month, the whole congregation 
murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilder- 
ness, and said, ** Would to God we had died by the 
hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by 
the flesh pots, when we did eat bread to the full ; for 
ye have brought us forth into this wilderness 
to kill this whole assembly with hunger." How 
utterly without faith in God and without rest of 
mind they were! Only the depths of the Red Sea 
behind kept them from rushing back to Egypt 
and to bondage. Then the Lord said unto Moses, 



234 The Eternal Purpose 

"Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; 
and the people shall go out and gather a certain 
rate every day, that I may prove them whether they 
will walk in my law or not. And it shall come to 
pass that on the sixth day they shall prepare that 
which they bring in ; and it shall be twice as much 
as they bring in daily. And in the morning the 
dew lay round about the host. And when the dew 
that lay was gone up, behold upon the face of the 
wilderness, a small round thing, small as the hoar 
frost on the ground .... and Moses said unto 
them, This is the bread which God hath given you 
to eat. This is the thing which the Lord hath 
commanded. Gather of it every man according 
to his eating .... And the children of Israel 
did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And 
Moses said. Let no man leave it until the morning. 
But some of them left it until the morning, and it 
bred worms and stank: and Moses was wroth with 
them. And they gathered every morning every 
man according to his eating; and when the sun 
waxed hot, it melted. And it came to pass on the 
sixth day they gathered twice as much bread — 
and all the rulers of the congregation came and told 
Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which 
the Lord hath said. Tomorrow is the rest of the 
holy sabbath unto the Lord; bake that which ye 
will bake and seethe that ye will seethe; and that 
which remaineth over, lay up for you, to be kept 
until the morning. And they laid it up till the 
morning as Moses bade : and it did not stink, neither 
was there any worms therein. And Moses said. Eat 



The Sabbath of The Lord 235 

that to-day, for to-day is a sabbath unto the Lord : 
to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days 
ye shall gather it ; but on the seventh day, which 
is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it 
came to pass there went out some of the people 
on the seventh day for to gather, and they found 
none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long 
refuse ye to keep my commandments and my 
law? See, for the Lord hath given you the sabbath, 
therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread 
of two days; abide ye every man in his place on 
the seventh day. So the people rested on the 
seventh day." Ex. 16:2-30. 

This was the beginning, the institution, of the 
seventh-day sabbath. It is manifest that the sabbath 
was a new thing to them. They did not know 
what to do or what not to do, excepting as they 
were specifically told. It is evident that Moses 
told them at once, when the Lord communicated 
it to him, what was commanded ; so when the sixth 
day came they gathered a double amount. But 
there was a discussion whether it was the right thing 
to do ; for some had tried keeping it over on other 
days and it bred worms, so they came to him 
again to learn whether he really meant that they 
should gather double and keep it over. Then, also, 
they were not used to a sabbath day and some 
went out to gather on the seventh day just as on 
other days; but they soon learned. 

About three or four weeks later, the giving of 
the law occurred. There the commandment for 
keeping the seventh-day sabbath was repeated. 



236 The Eternal Purpose 

They had then already kept it as many as three 
times; and the reiteration of the command began 
with an exhortation that they should not forget it, 
saying, *' Remember the sabbath day, to keep it 
holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy 
work; but the seventh is the sabbath of the Lord 
thy God ; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor 
thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, 
nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger 
that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord 
made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in 
them is, and rested the seventh day; therefore 
the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." 

There are strong reasons to believe that the 
moral principles contained in the decalogue were 
known to the people of the antediluvian and patri- 
archal ages; but if so, they were not in the form 
of a covenant. Not until there had been long con- 
tinued and dreadful experience of evil was any 
covenant of rewards and penalties established. 
Only the penalty for murder was announced through 
Noah. Gen. 9:6. 

Of this the Scriptures are very definite. Moses 
says, ''The Lord made not this covenant with our 
fathers, but with us, even us, who are all here 
alive this day." Deut. 5:3. And the typical 
character of the fourth commandment, as distinct 
from the strictly moral character of the other nine, 
is especially stated in verse 15: "And remember 
that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, 
and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence, 
through a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm; 



The Sabbath of The Lord 237 

therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to 
keep the sabbath day;'' and by the prophet the Lord 
says, "I wrought for my name's sake — wherefore I 
caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt — 
and I gave them my statutes and shewed them 
my judgments — moreover, also, I gave them my 
sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that 
they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify 
them." Ezek. 20: 9-12. 

It is an old and undisputed exegesis that Egypt 
typically represents the ungodly under the dominion 
of Satan. 2 Cor. 4:4. And the bondage of the 
children of Israel represents all humanity in the 
slavery of sin — a slavery that is entailed by reason 
of being bom in this world, as the enslaved Israelites 
were born in Egypt. 

In memory of their deliverance from that 
wearying, crushing slavery, that unceasing and 
profitless toil, the Israelites were to observe a day 
of rest, and keep it to the honor of Him who had 
delivered them, that is, keep it ''holy unto the 
Lord." It was not to be a day of idleness; but 
of assembling together to learn and to refresh their 
memories in the ways of the Lord, as it is written, 
''The seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy 
convocation: ye shall do no work therein; it is the 
sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. Lev. 23 :3. 

Any neglect of the seventh day, by not ceasing 
from their own works and devoting it to the honor 
and glory of God, in "holy convocation," was prima 
facie evidence that their hearts were not right 
with God. If they failed to observe that day, 



238 The Eternal Purpose 

it was because they did not care to honor Him. 
It was evidence so plain that not God only, but 
all men also, could unmistakably see the true state 
of the Israelite's heart. It was a watchman to 
announce when reverence toward God, which 
insures obedience, was getting cold; **a sign" to 
exhibit most unerringly the condition of his soul 
in respect to his Creator. 

The seventh day commandment related wholly 
to the Israelite's relations to God. Its position 
in the decalogue, therefore, logically follows, in 
the descending scale, the first three which relate 
only to the Lord. Thus its position is near the 
middle of the ten commandments. The other six 
have to do only with the relations of men to each 
other. 

It has been held by some zealous Christians 
that the observance of the seventh day as a sabbath 
was not ordained for the children of Israel alone, 
but for all people of all times. They build this 
doctrine on the idea that the six creative days 
were of twenty-four hours each, and that the seventh 
day, of which it is said ''God rested on the seventh 
day," was likewise of twenty-four hours measured 
by a revolution of the earth on its axis: and that 
the rest which the Creator took was a physical 
rest; and that He commanded Adam that he also 
and his posterity should rest every seventh day 
and keep it a sabbath holy unto the Lord. They 
claim that the righteous of the antediluvian and 
patriarchal ages did so observe the sabbath every 
seventh day; and that the word remember, with 



The Sabbath of The Lord 239 

which the commandment in the decalogue begins, 
refers to an ancient practice which was well known 
to them. 

The answer to all this is, First. The idea that 
the six creative days and the seventh day of God's 
rest were each of only twenty-four hours, measured 
by a revolution of the earth on its axis, is without 
any authority from the Holy Scriptures, for it is 
not so written anywhere in the Bible. 

Second. The word day (Hebrew yom) is used 
in the Holy Scriptures to indicate periods of time, 
sometimes including many years. 

Third. The testimony of the earth's formation, 
as written in the rocks, which is the Creator's 
book of nature, and which has been opened and 
evidently read with approximate correctness, testi- 
fies positively that the word day, as applied to the 
times of creation in the first chapter of Genesis, 
must be understood as long periods of time; and 
that interpretation is in no degree antagonistic 
to the Holy Scriptures. 

Fourth. The claim that the seventh -day 
sabbath was observed by Adam and all the right- 
eous men of all generations previous to Moses is 
not supported by any statement in the Bible, unless 
it may be by forcibly stretching the word ** remember" 
of the fourth commandment, entirely beyond its 
necessary reference which is to the commandment 
given less than a month before the decalogue was 
proclaimed. Ex. 16:5-30. 

Fifth. There is no suggestion of a hebdomadal 
division of time, from the creation to Moses, except- 



240 The Eternal Purpose 

ing only that the Lord said unto Noah, ''Yet seven 
days, and I svill cause it to rain upon the earth 
forty days and forty nights." And also a little 
incident that on a certain day while Noah was in the 
ark he let a dove loose ; but it returned and he took 
it in, then he waited seven days and put it out again, 
and again it returned ; so he waited seven days more, 
and put it out a third time, and it did not come back. 
But if these seven days prove anything on the sab- 
bath-day question, they prove too much; for they 
show, if anything, that Noah rested six days and 
worked on the seventh. But there is nothing in it; 
and the wonder is how zeal against knowledge 
could have twisted and drawn such an incident 
into material for building up the perpetual seventh- 
day sabbath idea. 

Having accomplished the work for which the 
Lord instituted it, namely, to illustrate the princi- 
ple that all our time should be devoted to the Lord, 
as "laborers together with Him," doing His work 
in His way; ceasing utterly from the ways of our 
own invention, and resting, sabbathing, by faith 
and trust in God, the seventh-day sabbath and all 
limited and specified times of service, passed away 
together; as the Apostle says, "Blotting out the 
hand-writing of ordinances that was against us, 
which was contrary to us, and took it out of the 
way, nailing it to His cross, . . .Let no one, therefore, 
judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of an 
holy day, or of a new moon, or of the sabbaths." 
Col. 2:14-16. 

It has been claimed by seventh-day sabbath- 



The Sabbath of The Lord 241 

keepers that sabbaths, in the foregoing text, meant 
only the sabbaths of the annual festivals and not 
of the seventh day: and in proof they assert that 
the Lord in speaking of the seventh day calls it 
**My sabbath," while He calls the sabbaths of the 
festivals ''your sabbaths;' but it is a strained 
imagination. In the twenty-third chapter of Levi- 
ticus, **The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak 
unto the children of Israel and say unto them, 
The feasts of the Lord which ye shall proclaim holy 
convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days 
shall work be done; but the seventh day is the 
sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do 
no work therein: it is the sabbath of the Lord in 
all your dwellings." That is the seventh-day sab- 
bath and the first one of the feasts of the Lordy 
enumerated. Then He enumerates seven annual 
feasts and sabbaths, saying, ''These are the feasts 
of the Lord, holy convocations, which ye shall pro- 
claim in their season." And these annual feasts 
and sabbaths are ''of the Lord" just the same as 
the seventh-day sabbath. 

The seventh-day sabbath and the annual sab- 
baths, and the feasts of the first of every month, 
or the new moon, were all a part of the law, to be 
obserA'Cd in a specified way according to the Lord's 
commandment. In the course of time, however, 
the manner of observing these feasts was somewhat 
changed by the people to suit their own ideas. 
And then they ceased to be what the Lord had 
ordained, and did not at all answer the purposes 
for w^hich the Lord had appointed them. And 



242 The Eternal Purpose 

by the prophet, the Lord repudiates them, saying, 
**When you come to appear before Me, who hath 
required this at your hand to tread my courts? 
Bring no more vain oblations : incense is an abomi- 
tation unto Me; the new moons and sabbaths, 
the caUing of assembHes I cannot, away with; 
it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new 
moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hateth/' 
Isa. 1:12-14. 

There is the only true distinction between what 
is man's and what is the Lord's. What He has 
ordained is His ; what they have changed and made 
different. He repudiates and calls them "your." 

Of the ordinances which Christ blotted out nailing 
them to His cross, and concerning which we shall 
let no man control us, the Apostle enumerates, 
*'In meat or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, 
or of the new moon, or of sabbaths," because they 
are each and all of them only shadows of things 
which should be known and understood and kept 
in their spiritual meaning, by the members of the 
body of Christ, and not kept in their literal meaning 
as by the Israelites under the law. The seven 
annual sabbaths which the Lord appointed were 
these, namely: The fourteenth and twenty-first 
days of the first month. These were the two 
sabbaths of the passover and the feast of unleavened 
bread. The next was the sabbath of the pentecost, 
which was fifty days after the passover. Then the 
first day of the seventh month was a sabbath, **a 
memorial of blowing trumpets." Next the tenth 
day of the same month was the great day of atone- 



The Sabbath of The Lord 243 

ment, also a sabbath. The fifteenth day of the 
same month was a sabbath, and so was the twenty- 
second day; these last two were the beginning and 
close of the feast of tabernacles. Lev. 23. 

These seven days were sabbaths, ''holy unto the 
Lord," to be observed just as vigorously as the sev- 
enth-day sabbath and in just the same manner, 
with the same penalties for desecration. 

After the return of the Jews from the captivity 
at Babylon, these seven annual sabbaths came 
by them to be called holy days, in distinction from 
the seventh-day sabbath. See Neh. 10:31; 8:9, 10. 
And there were no other holy days but these, in 
the law of Moses. And it is these seven annual 
sabbaths that the Apostle refers to when he enu- 
merates holy days as blotted out by Christ; then 
in the same list he enumerates new moon feasts and 
sabbaths. Excepting the holy days, there were no 
sabbaths but the seventh day; and having once 
mentioned them by the then common names 
holy days, he would not in the same sentence and 
with the conjunction or enumerate them again under 
the name sabbaths. 

It is very plain that the Apostle meant to say 
that the time for keeping one twenty-four-hour day 
in seven, holy unto the Lord, had fulfilled its course 
and passed away. For now the time had come 
when the true sabbath of Jehovah should be under- 
stood; and that sabbath-keeping, that rest which 
remains to the people of God, is not the ceasing 
from common labor one day in seven, but the utter 
ceasing every day from every manner of work 



244 The Eternal Purpose 

not in harmony with the righteousness of God, 
and from every device and method of our own, 
or of other men, for doing God's work in any reU- 
gious service ; and from attempting to use any power 
or influence other than the word of God with and in 
the spirit of Christ. 

The seventh-day sabbath ceased, because that 
restful trust and obedience — that walking with 
God — had become the established character of those 
who meet God in Christ Jesus. It passed away, 
for its work was done. For the same reason the 
first day, or Sunday, sabbath is a fiction. But 
those who love the Lord speak often one to another ; 
they forsake not the assembling of themselves to- 
gether unto Christ, for love, not law, moves them. 
But the day on which by common consent, they 
meet together, whether the first day of the week 
or any other, is not thereby constituted ''a sabbath 
holy unto the Lord." 

EVERY DAY ALIKE. 

That observance of the seventh-day sabbath, 
as an ordinance of the Lord, passed away with all 
the ordinances of the law is made clear by the 
Apostle Paul. Most of the converts at Corinth 
were Greek, but there were some Jews among them ; 
and most all Jewish converts to Christ still held 
to the ordinances of the law. And it was hard for 
some of them to believe that the Gentiles who had 
turned unto the true God, through faith in Christ 
Jesus, should not also observe the ordinances of the 



The Sabbath of The Lord 245 

law. This the apostles strenuously resisted, but 
allowed the Jewish converts to follow the customs 
they had been used to, until they would come to 
see more clearly that all those ordinances having 
been appointed to lead them to Christ ended in 
Christ. 

It is evident that Paul, from the very first, knew 
and understood that the same gospel which worked 
in the Greek to save him without observing the 
ordinances of the law, also saved the Jew in the 
same manner. But the ordinary Jew could not, 
as yet, see it that way; with him it was a matter 
of conscience toward God, therefore he was permitted 
to continue those practices for the time. But reason 
would be at work, and the question could not help 
rising up. If the Greek shall not observe the ordi- 
nance of the Mosaic law, why should the Jew? 
A discussion arose, and a disposition to censure 
those differing from them was manifested by both 
sides. The Apostle Paul's attention was called 
to the matter and he v/rote to them, saying, "He 
that is weak in the faith, receive ye, but not to 
doubtful disputations. For one believeth he may 
eat all things; another, who is weak, eateth herbs. 
Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth 
not; and let not him which eateth not judge him 
that eateth; for God hath received him. One man 
esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth 
every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded 
in his own mind. He that regardeth the day 
regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth 
not the day, to the Lord he doeth not regard it/' 



246 The Eternal Purpose 

Rom. 14:1-6. Ttere were no days that could be 
regarded as holy unto the Lord but the sabbath 
days designated in the law of Moses, the seventh- 
day sabbath and the annual sabbaths. And the 
Apostle makes no distinction nor reservation, but 
shows that to the disciples of Jesus observance or 
non-observance of any day, as unto the Lord, was 
only a matter of opinion and of conscience, as each 
one might view the subject. And it was virtually 
a declaration that all sacred days had ceased. 

Now, if the seventh-day sabbath was still in 
force, as it had been until the death and resurrec- 
tion of Christ, the Apostle made a miserable blunder 
in this all inclusive proclamation. He should have 
excepted the seventh day, and not to do so, utterly 
cuts him off from all claim as an inspired messenger 
and teacher from the Lord. But Paul was right. 
He was taught of God, The Holy Spirit was his 
guide. And under the guidance of that One who 
''knows our frame and remembers that we are dust," 
Paul sympathized with his brethren, the Jews, 
knowing how hard it is for human nature to break 
loose from affectionate reverence for things held 
sacred, inbred by many generations, instilled into 
the earliest buddings of intelligence and enshrined 
with the sweetest memories of childhood. 

When among the Greeks he paid no attention 
to the ordinances of the Mosaic law ; but when among 
the Jews, Paul acted with the discretion which is 
begotten by that rarest of all talents, the talent 
of common sense, which avoids the very appearance 
of driving; but with patience and gentleness seeks 



The Sabbath of The Lord 247 

only to open the way and induce a free-will walking 
in the paths of truth. When the Jewish believers 
insisted on the circumcision of Gentile believers, 
Paul absolutely refused to allow it: and in this he 
was upheld by all the apostles. But he allowed 
the circumcision of Timothy, because his mother 
was a Jewess, though his father was a Greek. 
And Paul himself submitted to the ordinance of 
purifying, on the advice of other apostles, in order to 
pacify a great number of Jewish believers in Jerusa- 
lem, who had heard a false report that he was teach- 
ing the Jews everywhere to despise the laws of 
Moses. Acts 21:19-26. 

Nor, indeed, did the Jewish Christians, as a whole, 
ever give up practicing circumcision and seventh- 
day sabbath-keeping. They were driven from Jeru- 
salem by the Roman army, and scattered in many 
countries; but though believing in Christ they held 
to the Mosaic ordinances, in so far as they could, 
when away from Jerusalem. And during the early 
centuries, after the apostles were dead, many Juda- 
isms were so engrafted as to materially change some 
Christian doctrines and practices, and together 
with some heathen ideas, also engrafted, have been 
the incubus and plague of the gospel of Jesus Christ 
unto this day. 

That seventh-day sabbath-keeping can be found 
among Christians for several centuries: that even 
faint traces of it may be espied during the dark 
ages; and its revival in modem times, is only an 
evidence of the pertinacity with which error holds 
on in the specious guise of truth. 



248 The Eternal Purpose 

But though observance of any of the Old Testa- 
ment ordinances by Christians is error; yet it is 
done, perhaps always, in the belief that having 
once commanded the observance, the Lord intended 
it to continue without end : and it is done in obedi- 
ence to what is believed to be God's commandment. 

But such an error is not sufficient for separation ; 
and those holding it are not, on that account, to be 
denied fellowship among the brethren of Christ. 

A state may rightly enact laws protecting 
laborers from too continuously protracted toil, 
and giving them days of recreation, making it 
unlawful for an employer to insist on the employes 
continuing at work on that day under pain of losing 
the position; but any laws made '*To protect the 
sanctity of the sabbath day," whether that day be 
Sunday, Saturday or any other, will trample upon 
the freedom of some, and outrage the principles 
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But laws to protect 
the peace and quiet of any individual or assembly 
against vicious and unnecessary disturbance are 
equal and just, and not oppressive to any. 



Baptism 249 



CHAPTER XV. 

BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

**He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and 
with fire; whose fan is in His hand, and He will 
thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat 
into the gamer; but He w^ill burn up the chaff with 
unquenchable fire." Matt. 3:11, 12. 

Baptism in w^ater is the work which one disciple 
of Jesus shall do for another ; but baptism with the 
Holy Spirit can be only the work of God. It is the 
bestowal by the Lord on a believer of ''that spirit 
which is of God," by which He discerns the goodness, 
the loving kindness and the tender mercy of the 
Lord and by w^hich, also his heart is changed from 
rebellion or indifference to loving obedience. It 
is called baptism in, or by, the Spirit; because by 
whatever spirit a man is possessed, that spirit holds 
him and carries him in its own ways, as a flood of 
water holds and carries a person who has fallen 
into its current. That is one of the usages of the 
Greek word haptizo, as found in the Greek classics. 
So when a man has "the spirit of this world," he 
is carried along by it in the current of worldliness, 
and he is devoted to the pleasures, honors and 
emoluments of the world. But when a man has 
"received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit 
which is of God" (1 Cor. 2:12), he is no longer 



250 The Eternal Purpose 

whelmed and carried along by the worldly current, 
he is delivered from that, but he is whelmed and 
carried along by **the spirit which is of God'' in the 
current of godliness, and he is devoted to the ways 
of the Lord, loving the Saviour and all the things 
that the Saviour loves. **For the fruit of the spirit 
is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good- 
ness, faith, meekness, temperance.'' Gal. 5:22. 

**The fruit of the spirit" is not the same as 
'^spiritual gifts." And it is of the utmost import- 
ance that the difference should be kept in view in 
all Bible study. ''The fruit of the spirit is in all 
goodness and righteousness and truth" (Eph. 5:9), 
and consists of those developments of character 
which are seen, more or less, in every disciple of 
Jesus, always and everywhere. "Spiritual gifts," 
on the other hand, are the several qualifications 
for labor in the various services of gospel work. 
*'Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same 
spirit .... for to one is given, by the Spirit, the 
word of wisdom ; to another the word of knowledge, 
to another faith, to another the gifts of healing, 
to another the working of miracles, to another 
prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another 
divers kinds of tongues, to another interpretation 
of tongues. But all these worketh by that one and 
the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally 
as he will." 1 Cor. 12:4-11. The disciples who 
were with Jesus during the three and a half years of 
His public ministry already had received a measure 
of the Holy Spirit, that spirit of loving faith, and 
by the light of which they knew and were sure 



Baptism 251 



that He was "The Christ, the Son of the hving God ;" 
for Jesus said in reply to that declaration, "Blessed 
art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath 
not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is 
in heaven." Matt. 16:16, 17. 

And it was in allusion to their receiving ability 
to do gospel work that He directed them, saying, 
"Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be 
endued with power from on high ... Ye shall be 
baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.'' 
Luke 24 :49 ; Acts 1 :5. Having in them the spirit 
of faith and loving obedience, they gave heed to 
His words and remained in Jerusalem, continuing 
"with one accord in prayer." "And when the day 
of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one 
accord in one place. And suddenly there came a 
sound from heaven, as of a mighty rushing wind, 
and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like 
as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to 
speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them 
utterance." Acts 2 :l-4. 

Miraculous demonstrations seem, in the wisdom 
of God, to have been necessary at the ending of 
each dispensational age and the beginning of a 
new one. The antediluvian dispensation closed 
with the deluge, and the following dispensation 
began with the confusion of tongues. The patri- 
archal dispensation ended with the plagues on 
Egypt, and the Mosaic opened with the passage of the 
Red Sea and the awful exhibition at Sinai. When 



252 The Eternal Purpose 

the dispensation of the law was ending, the siek 
were healed, and the dead were restored to life by 
the word of Jesus. And while they had Him nailed 
to. the cross, ''There was darkness over all the land . . 
and the veil of the temple was rent in twain, from 
the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, 
and the rocks rent/' The gospel dispensation 
began with the gift of tongues to those who should 
proclaim the glad tidings and with healing the sick. 

DO SPIRITUAL GIFTS CONTINUE ? 

Our God is perfect in wisdom, and whatever He 
does is for the accomplishment of a purpose. That 
part of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, in the days 
of the apostles, by which disciples of Christ were 
* 'endued with power" to speak with tongues, heal 
the sick and do many other miracles, was for a 
purpose. And as long as such miraculous demon- 
strations were needed, the baptism of power for 
working miracles would doubtless be continued. 
These things were for the benefit of those who were 
ignorant of God's revealed ways, or were so deeply 
prejudiced through erroneous teachings that with- 
out such demonstrations of divine presence they 
could not break loose from the errors that bound 
them. Such was the case of the Jews, through 
their carnal misunderstanding of the law and the 
prophets. Such also was, to some extent, the case 
of the heathen in their idolatrous delusions. But 
the evidences of the truth of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ are now so thoroughly established, and are 



Baptism 253 

so easily within the reach of any soul that really 
wants to know the truth, that miracles are not at 
all necessary for the convincing of any who are 
honestly willing to be convinced. And no miracle 
whatever could add strength to the faith of the 
disciples in these days, who, having sought the 
Lord with a perfect heart in the name of Jesus 
Christ, are now rejoicing with a "joy unspeakable 
and full of glory." 

There is good reason to believe that the loving 
Father hears the sobs of His weeping children, and 
when it would be wise and good to do so, hears their 
prayer for the temporary restraint of the death 
messenger that seems about to tear a dear one 
away from the family ; but that is only for a com- 
forting of those who believe and love the Saviour. 
For **The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous 
man availeth much." Jas. 5:16. But, as evidence 
of divine approbation of any religious teachings, 
the baptism by the Holy Spirit, of power to speak 
with tongues or to heal the sick, or any other form 
of miracle working, is now the claim only of char- 
latans and the basest deceivers. 

THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 

Some enthusiasts have thought that the baptism 
of fire of which John the Baptist spoke (Matt. 
3:11, 12), means a work done by the Lord within 
their hearts, by which all carnality is consumed, 
and they are henceforth absolutely pure and are 
filled with a holy zeal and become exceedingly 



254 The Eternal Purpose 

active and full of praises to God. But if they would 
read more carefully, they would see that it is not 
fire which sets apart, sanctifies and purifies the 
wheat from the chaff, making it fit for the garner 
of the Lord, but it is the wind blowing the chaff 
out from among the wheat, and after the separating 
is completed by the wind, then the fire destroys 
what is not fit for the Lord's use. The fire does 
not touch the wheat. If the wheat represents the 
people of God, then the chaff represents such as are 
not the people of God. Fire is always the symbol 
of that which destroys what is not fit for the Lord to 
keep, and nowhere in the Scriptures is it spoken 
of as the instrument of purifying the heart. That 
is done only by the word of God, applied by the 
Holy Spirit. **Now are ye clean through the word 
which I have spoken unto you." 

WATER BAPTISM. 

When, in the course of time, the types and shad- 
ows ordained in the law of Moses had all been acted 
out and made a matter of record, it was of no use 
to longer continue the acting of them, for, being 
only types and shadows of good things to come 
and not themselves the reality of those good things, 
the record of them, as contained in the Old Testa- 
ment, is all that is necessary for all future genera- 
tions to correctly learn those principles of divine 
truth contained in them, and the conditions built 
thereupon, that we may rightly comprehend and by 



Baptism 255 

faith lay hold of the promises of God, which set 
before us the reality of the good things. 

But human nature has not changed and th'^ 
laws of the human intellect are not changed, 
therefore, types and shadows and metaphors are 
in constant use in all languages, among all nations 
and tribes for conveying instruction and fixing it 
in the memory. And the Creator, who from the 
first, has, in wisdom, used them for the instruction 
and correction of the human family, did not utterly 
discontinue the use of them when those ordained 
in the Mosaic law having accomplished the pur- 
poses for which they were appointed were dis- 
continued. 

When the Lord Jesus Christ commissioned His 
follow^ers, he said, **Go disciple all the nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of 
the Son and of the Holy Spirit." 

This baptism which the disciples, in the course 
of their ministry, were to perform, was not spiritual 
baptism, for only God can bestow that. It was 
water baptism, which the apostles had been accus- 
tomed to administer under the direction of the 
Lord Jesus. John 4:1, 2. Water baptism was 
not an ordinance of the Mosaic law, as some commen- 
tators have, from a careless ignorance, announced ; 
but it was an entirely new ordinance. There were 
many washings of clothes and of the person, under 
the law, but they were washings which might be 
performed in any way so that washing was accom- 
plished to produce cleanliness, for cleanliness was 
the object and end of the washing. Cleanliness of 



256 The Eternal Purpose 

person and of garments typified cleanliness of the 
heart and habits of life. 

Under the Mosaic law, in the washings for 
purification, each one being purified must wash 
himself, whether he plunged into a pool, or washed 
from a basin, by rubbing his whole person with his 
wet hand or a wet cloth ; or by affusion, as by 
standing under falling water. Absolutely no method 
for accomplishing the washing was anywhere 
prescribed. Had it been written in the law that 
the person purifying should dip his body under 
water to wash, or that he should have water poured 
on him, or that he should rub his body with a wet 
hand or a wet cloth, any of these would have been 
specified modes of washing, but there was nothing 
of the kind. The command was simply wash. 

The prophet Elisha told Naaman, the leper, to 
wash (Heb. rah-ghatz), in Jordan seven times and 
he should be recovered from his leprosy. Naaman 
went and dipped (Heb. tah-val; Greek of LXX 
baptizo) himself seven times in Jordan, according 
to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh came 
again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he 
was clean. 2 Kings 5 :10-14. 

Here the washing was by dipping. That is, 
he immersed himself seven times in the water of 
Jordan. When Joseph met his brethren and knew 
them, he went to another room and wept; then, 
lest they should see that he had been weeping, he 
washed (Heb. rah-ghatz; Gr. LXX nizo) his face, 
it is probable in the ordinary way, with his hands, 
from a basin or a fountain. 



Baptism 257 

By these various modes washing was accom- 
phshed, and these washings are all that can be found 
in the Holy Scriptures out of which to make the 
statement that baptism was an institution of the 
Mosaic law. 

It may be true that for some time before the 
advent of Christ, the Jews required those who came 
to them as proselytes to baptize or immerse them- 
selves, as an act of purification; such is claimed to 
be the fact by some Jewish writers, but if they did, 
it was a work of their own invention, the Lord never 
appointed it; it was not written in the law. The 
only act appointed in the law for receiving prose- 
lytes was circumcision. But there is no evidence 
that the claim is true. Josephus, who wrote a full 
history of the religious practices of the Jews, from 
Abraham to Christ, never mentions any such thing : 
nor is there any actual record, nor any proof of 
such a practice among the Jews until the second 
century after Christ. (See McClintock & Strong's 
Cyclopaedia, Art. Baptism). The first baptism of 
which the Holy Scriptures give any account, as 
having been appointed by the Lord, is that of John 
the Baptist, as it is written, "There was a man sent 
from God, whose name was John. The same was 
sent for a witness, to bear witness of the light, 
that all through him might believe .... John seeth 
Jesus coming unto him and saith. Behold the Lamb 
of God which taketh away the sin of the world. 
This is He of whom I said, after me cometh a man 
which is preferred before me ; for He was before me. 
And I knew Him not ; but He that sent me to baptize 



258 The Eternal Purpose 

with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom 
thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining 
on Him, the same is He which baptize th with the 
Holy Ghost." John 1:6-33. So it is evident that 
John did not pick up the act of baptizing from any 
practice common in that day, but he did it in 
obedience to the instructions given him personally 
from the Lord. 

It is very probable that the Israelites in per- 
forming the typical washings which were required 
by the law, often baptized themselves in a pool of 
water, when circumstances made it convenient so 
to do, just as Naaman baptized himself in Jordan, 
when told by the prophet to go and wash. But as 
they were not required to use that mode, any other 
mode of washing being just as good, it is very 
probable that what we now call a hand bath was 
the more frequent mode, especially among women, 
at least until ''the traditions of the elders" had 
supplanted the ways of the Lord, and the laws of 
Moses had largely fallen into desuetude. 

If there were, indeed, any washings of purifica- 
tion under the law ever accomplished by baptism 
or immersion of the person in water, it was by 
self-action, for all washing of purification must be 
done by the one seeking purification. 

Not so, however, with the baptism appointed 
by Jesus Christ, to be observed by His disciples of 
every nation, to the end of the gospel age. Matt. 
28:19,20. 

Christian baptism has a comprehensive meaning, 



Baptism 259 

a signification, which makes self-baptism^ by the 
disciple of Jesus, impossible. 

In the sixth chapter of Romans is disclosed to us 
the spiritual meaning of water baptism. The apostle 
says, **How shall we that are dead to sin live any 
longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us 
as are baptized into Jesus Christ are baptized into 
His death ? Therefore we are buried wdth Him by 
baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised 
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even 
so, we also should walk in newness of life." Verses 
2,4. 

The act of baptism, then, represents the burial 
of a person that is dead, and also his subsequent 
resurrection unto life, by the power of God. And 
the death, here alluded to, is prefigured in the law 
of Moses by the sacrifice for sin, by which was typified 
the destruction of the carnal mind, the annihilation 
of that supremacy of the flesh which lusteth against 
the spirit. At the same time also baptism com- 
prehends all that is typified by the whole burnt 
offering of that law. In the action of baptism 
therefore the disciple of Jesus says, "Though I die 
by sin, yet I die as did my Saviour, the Lord Jesus 
Christ, in the full confidence of the resurrection 
unto eternal life. And not only so, but by this act 
of baptism, I declare that I reckon myself to be dead 
indeed, unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus 
Christ my Lord. I can therefore no longer permit 
sin to reign in my mortal body, that I should obey 
its lusts, nor yield myself in any way as an instru- 
ment of unrighteousness; but I yield myself unto 



260 The Eternal Purpose 

God as one that is alive from the dead." So 
Christian baptism bears further testimony than do 
the sacrifices of the law; for the disciple of Jesus 
being lifted up out of the water, by the power of 
another (the baptizer), the resurrection of the dead 
by the power of God is symbolized, and his full 
assurance of faith in the resurrection of the Lord 
Jesus Christ is declared. 

Christian baptism being then, in type, the burial 
of the dead, the old man of sin, and the resurrection 
of the dead unto eternal life, it follows that sprink- 
ling water on the head would not be Christian 
baptism; for it does not accomplish a burial, and 
in it there is no sign of a resurrection. Neither 
does pouring water on the person accomplish a 
burial, and cannot symbolize a resurrection, unless 
the person was placed in a vat and a quantity of 
water sufficient to cover him was poured on. But 
that would be a tedious process, and as the person 
being baptized must, to represent being dead, be 
wholly passive, there might be danger of actual 
drowning by that process. But by the immersion 
of the person into water by the hands of another, 
both death and resurrection are typified, and the 
action may be safely and quickly performed. And 
besides that, the primary meaning of the Greek 
word baptizo is to dip, to immerse, ''to dip repeated- 
ly" (lyid. and Scott's Lex.) ; that is, to dip in and 
take out. All other meanings are only secondary, 
and arise from conditions which ordinarily are 
accomplished by dipping or immersion of anything, 
but which may sometimes be accomplished some 



Baptism 261 

other way. To illustrate : Clothes are, in these days, 
and were also in ancient times, ordinarily made 
clean by dipping and scrubbing them in water; 
yet they are sometimes cleaned by pouring water on 
them and scrubbing them. The great requisite is 
that the clothes shall be thoroughly and repeatedly 
saturated in water, so that water passing through 
will carry out the dirt. But immersion in water 
was always so much the easier process, that any 
other was rarely ever used, and the common mode 
of doing came in time to be the name of the thing 
done, and so in Greek conversation the washing of 
clothes, dishes, pots, vessels, etc., was ordinarily 
spoken of as the baptism (the dipping or immersion) 
of them, not that it was the only possible mode, but 
the easiest and ordinary way. 

It is important to remember that baptism is not 
a symbol of purification from evil contaminations; 
but of death' and resurrection. There is a wide 
difference between the inherent disposition to sin, 
the heart of sin which is within us, and those con- 
taminations of sin which are from without. The 
first is what an unconverted man is: the second are 
those things which even a good man may be doing, 
in ignorance that he is doing anything wrong, 
owing to lack of right instruc'.ion, or indeed of 
false instruction. 

The resurrection of the dead was the great 
stumbling-block, on account of which it was hard 
for the Greek to accept Christianity. The com- 
mon doctrine held by them in their heathen con- 
dition was that when a man died, his spirit went at 



262 The Eternal Purpose 

once to the place were it belonged. If good, it 
went to the abode of the good where it had such 
enjoyments as the gods chose to bestow; but if 
wicked, it went to the abode of the wicked where 
it endured such afflictions as the gods chose to put 
upon it. Accordingly they could not see any need 
of a resurrection, since they supposed the eternal 
condition of each one was fixed at death. A good 
many Greeks accepted Christ Jesus as the Saviour, 
during the ministry of the Apostles; but some of 
them remained in doubt concerning the resurrection. 
And in writing to the Greek Christians at Corinth, 
the Apostle says, "Some among you say there is no 
resurrection of the dead." And then to establish 
their faith in that doctrine, he argues. First, That 
it is an integral part of the Christian faith that he 
had preached it to them, as he had received it from 
the Lord. Second, That the resurrection of Christ 
was a fact, provable by more than five hundred 
witnesses, most of whom were yet alive when he 
wrote, and that he had himself seen Christ alive 
since He was put to death on the cross. Third, If 
there was no resurrection then Christ was not 
risen, and the gospel they had accepted was false 
and they all were yet in their sins. Fourth, If there 
was no resurrection then those who had fallen 
asleep (died) had utterly perished. And then his 
fifth and last argument was from the universal prac- 
tice of the baptism of all converts to Christ; he 
says, ''Else what shall they do which are baptized 
for the dead, if the dead rise not at all ? Why are 
they then baptized for the dead?" For baptism, 



Baptism 263 

which means dipping, that is, putting in and taking 
out, would indeed, be meaningless and silly if those 
who are put into death are not taken out and made 
alive again. And so every one who believes the gospel 
is baptized for the dead — for himself, that though 
he shall die, yet he shall not remain dead ; for that 
he will be taken out of death, in the resurrection, 
and will again be alive, in a life that is eternal, by 
the powder of God "who giveth us the victory through 
our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. 15. We see then 
that baptism is not "a ceremony of initiation into 
church membership," but looking backward to 
Jesus; it is a memorial action, appointed to pre- 
serve intact the central truth of the gospel, namely, 
*'That Christ died for our sins, according to the 
Scriptures ; and that He was buried, and that He 
rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures." 
1 Cor. 15:3, 4. And looking forward, it is an action 
of prophecy, by which we declare our faith in the 
promise of God, that, though we die, there shall 
be a resurrection of the dead and we shall live 
again. 

BAPTISM IN THE NAME. 

To illustrate the meaning of being baptized in 
or into (Gr. eis) the name, the crossing of the Red 
Sea by the children of Irsael is given to us. The 
Apostle says, *'Our fathers were under the cloud, 
and all passed through the sea, and were all bap- 
tized into (Gr. eis) Moses, in the cloud and in the 
sea." 1 Cor. 10:2. This means that the Israelites 
were baptized into the faith that God had appointed 



264 The Eternal Purpose 

Moses as their leader and lawgiver, the one person 
to whom they were to look for instruction and 
guidance, and by obeying whom they would finally 
arrive in the promised land. And at the same time, 
by that baptism, they were as completely separated 
from Egypt as though they were all dead and buried. 

Egypt was the type of the world of sin. Canaan 
was the type of heavenly rest. Moses was the 
type of the Saviour leading the believers home to 
God. The Father is the Saviour, the Son is the 
Saviour, the Holy Spirit is the Saviour, saving the 
lost ones that return unto God in Christ Jesus. 
And that believer who causes himself to be baptized 
''In (Gr. eis) the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost," thereby separates himself 
from the world of sin and from its ways and teach- 
ings, and is bound to have the Saviour only for 
his teacher, lawgiver and leader. No man nor 
party of men may, thereafter, be his guide; he 
may look only to the Saviour, to our Lord Jesus 
Christ for "the Father hath sent the Son to be the 
Saviour of the world." Or if he shall become the 
follower of a man or of a party, he nullifies the 
name in the faith and obedience of which alone 
he was baptized. 

The brethren at Corinth gave an illustration 
of this and were sharply rebuked, and that rebuke 
passes down to every soul that has been baptized 
in the name of the Saviour, to this day, who has 
fallen in the same blunder. Paul and ApoUos and 
Peter had all done good work in the gospel for 
the believers at Corinth. And these believers had 



Baptism 265 

all been baptized "in the name** of the Saviour. 
But some discussions developed into debates and 
parties were formed, and they took names, that is, 
became denominations. One party calling them- 
selves by the name of Paul, another by the name 
of Apollos, another of Peter. And in reproof Paul 
says to them, **Is Christ divided ... or were you 
baptized in (Gr. eis) the name of Paul? I thank 
God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and 
Gains; lest some should say that I had baptized 
in (Gr. eis) mine own name.'' 1 Cor. 1:13-15. It 
is not then, Paul, nor Apollos, nor Peter, nor any 
one, but Him only, in whose name we have been 
baptized that we are to believe and follow. 

GRAVE-ERRORS CONCERNING BAPTISM. 

Many gross superstitions crept in during the 
early days of the gospel age, affecting the simplicity 
of the gospel and creating some miserable distor- 
tions, both of doctrines and practices. And this is 
not so much to be w^ondered at from a natural 
point of view, since by far the greater number of the 
early believers were converted from heathenism, 
a seething cauldron of superstitions. Under these 
circumstances, baptism came to be understood, 
in popular belief, as an act by which forgiveness of 
sins was obtained. And, in that belief, many put 
off being baptized as late as they thought they could, 
with safety, in order that being baptized just 
before death, they might die in the confidence that 
all the sins of their whole lives were forgiven. For 



266 TKe Eternal Purpose 

that reason, the Emperor Constantine, who flourished 
in the fore part of the fourth century, was not 
baptized until near his end; though he had pro- 
fessed faith in Christ for nearly a quarter of a cen- 
tury. It would not be worth while to discuss 
ancient superstitions now, if they were ancient 
only; but some of them continue even to these 
days, and it seems necessary, in some cases, not 
only to make the truth clearly to be seen, but also 
to expose fallacies which deceive many people 
into a feeling of security in that which is utterly 
false. 

There are two organizations in active operation 
now, one of them very great and the other growing 
fast, the Roman and Mormon churches, which are 
the chief exponents, in these days, of the ancient 
superstition that baptism is an act for the forgive- 
ness of sins. There are Protestants also, of some 
sects, imbued with some features of the same thing. 
The objection to that doctrine is that it is contrary 
to *'the analogy of the faith" and therefore, cannot 
be true. The Holy Scriptures uniformly show that 
salvation is by faith with love, and not by works 
that men may do. And this is manifestly and 
necessarily true, for good works, *' works of righte- 
ousness,'' may be done, and are constantly being 
done, without faith or love on the part of the actors, 
some sinister purpose or else mere sympathy for 
suffering being the motive in many persons. The 
omniscient Jehovah does not need to see a work 
done in order that He may know the heart. And 
He alone forgives when He sees the heart is right. 



Baptism 267 

And He has said, *' Before they call, I will answer, 
and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." 
Isa. 65 :24. 

Now, ''works of righteousness" are such things 
as the Lord has told us to do, among which are, 
"Preach the word" and "This do in remembrance 
of me . . . for as often as ye eat this bread and drink 
this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death, till He 
come" and "Be ye baptized," "Care one for another," 
and many other things to be done in gospel service 
are works of righteousness; but, "Not by works of 
righteousness which we have done, but according 
to His mercy. He saved us, by the washing of 
regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, 
which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus 
Christ our Saviour." Tit. 3:5, 6. And this w^ashing 
of regeneration is not water baptism, as some have 
thought. It is the internal, the spiritual cleansing, 
the being bom from above. John 3:3. It is a 
work which only God •can do, and it is the thing 
for which David prayed, saying, "Wash me thor- 
oughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from 
my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be 
clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." 
Ps. 51 :2-7. "For by grace are ye saved through 
faith ; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of 
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. 
For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus 
unto good works, which God hath ordained that 
we should walk in them." Eph. 2:8-10. In these 
words the Apostle shows that we are indeed ap- 
pointed to do good works; but not until we have 



268 The Eternal Purpose 

been thereto **created in Christ Jesus.'* That is, 
not until we have been converted, and our sins 
blotted out ; for in the sight of God, nothing counts 
as "works of righteousness" until the heart is 
purified from sin. Isa. 1 :10-17. 

In practice, also, of the gospel work by the 
apostles, it is clearly shown that baptism is not 
to be classed with faith in Christ and repentance 
toward God as the invariable condition on which 
God will forgive a sinner. Cornelius, the Roman 
centurion, with members of his household, had 
come to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, and 
God bestowed on them the gift of the Holy Ghost 
and they spoke with tongues, thus the proof that 
they were accepted by the Lord, was given before 
they were baptized. Acts, 10:1-48. There may, 
however, be a case in which a person having be- 
lieved and truly repented of his past sins, yet halts 
and holds back from the performance of some ser- 
vice in the gospel which he is led to believe the 
Lord requires of him. It matters not what that 
service is, as long as it is resisted, the spirit of re- 
sistance to God is not yet broken, and the Lord 
cannot forgive sins where the spirit of rebellion 
still exists. Pride and the fear of man is always 
at the bottom of it. This was the case with those 
Jews who, on the day of Pentecost, witnessed the 
raarvelous spectacle and heard the gospel preached 
by the disciples of Jesus, preaching it in the language 
of every stranger there present. They were all 
familiar with the facts concerning Jesus, and for 
weeks, or even years, they had been considering 



Baptism 269 

whether He was not in very truth the Messiah that 
should come. But it had been agreed and pub- 
lished that if any one acknowledged that Jesus 
was the Christ that person should be put out of 
the synagogue, and that amounted to social ostra- 
cism, and what in these days is called ''boycotted." 
Is it then a wonder, from the standpoint of human 
nature, that very few dared to brave the ignominy 
and declare belief in Jesus? But the amazing 
miracle of unlearned natives of Galilee, speaking 
off-hand in the language of any foreigner who 
happened to be present, together with the clear 
showing which was made to them, that the death 
and resurrection of the Messiah was foretold by the 
prophets, added to their own previous knowledge 
of Jesus and the miracles He had performed, settled 
the question in their minds, they were convinced 
that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had crucified, 
was indeed the long looked for and hoped for Messiah. 
*'They w^ere pricked in the heart'' and confessed 
their belief, and said to the apostles, "Men, brethren, 
what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them. 
Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the 
name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye 
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Peter 
knew them ; he knew what was the matter, and the 
barrier at which they halted. Baptism was entirely 
a new thing, practiced only by the disciples of 
Jesus. To be baptized, therefore, was a public 
declaration of belief in Jesus and of adherence to 
His cause. That act, to a Jew, was sure to bring 
expulsion from the synagogue, social ostracism and 



270 The Eternal Purpose 

much trouble of various kinds; it was humiliating 
to the last degree, and they held back from taking 
the step. Could they not in a private and quiet 
way believe in Him and at the same time live in the 
favor of God, without bringing odium upon them- 
selves? But for exactly that reason they must be 
baptized, for their belief in Jesus and repentance 
of past sins could avail them nothing, in the sight 
of God, so long as the fear of man and the dread of 
shame held them back. And the same is equally 
true of every soul, of whatever nationality or of 
any time, that is deterred by pride from publicly 
confessing Christ, whether by baptism or any other 
of the "works of righteousness.'' And that is all 
that Peter meant to say and all that he could say 
and remain in harmony with the principles of the 
gospel. 

One thing more may be mentioned here. The 
doctrine that baptism is **in order to the remission 
of sins'' makes the forgiving of sin by the Lord to 
depend largely upon the will or convenience of a 
third party, a man, the baptizer, who may refuse 
to act, or may defer the baptism to suit his own 
convenience, or the convenience of an assembly: 
all of which has repeatedly happened. And during 
any such delay, the Lord must not forgive the 
penitent sinner, though He who knows the heart, 
knows that the penitent one has done all within 
his power to meet the terms of forgiveness. This 
is the logical and true conclusion of that doctrine, 
and reduces it to a ridiculous absurdity. 



Baptism 271 



INFANT BAPTISJJ. 

Infant baptism, a practice which dates back 
to the third century, grew out of two miserable 
conceptions of God's plan of salvation for man. 
The first was that which we have just examined 
namely, the superstition that baptism is an act by 
which remission of sins is obtained. The second 
was that all infants, youths and adults, not brought 
to Christ in this life, were condemned to unending 
torment without a chance of reprieve. The holding 
of these two doctrines, in combination, makes 
infant baptism a logical conclusion. But outside 
of this combination, no necessity nor sound reason 
ever has nor ever can be assigned for the baptism 
of infants more than of a gray -headed pagan who had 
never yet heard the name of Jesus. Intelligent 
Christians in these days are too well informed of 
the justice and tender mercies of the Creator to 
believe that He will punish anybody, infant or 
adult, until He has placed within their reach a fair 
opportunity to know His ways and make their 
own choice to accept or reject salvation in Christ 
Jesus. And whatever may be the creed in respect 
to other points of doctrine, there are few Christians 
indeed, who do not believe that all dying in infancy 
are safely provided for by the Redeemer, even 
though such Christians may not have become 
acquainted with those Scriptures which show plainly 
the plan of God by which He will, at His appointed 
time, bring all to that degree of knowledge by 



272 The Eternal Purpose 

which ''every tongue shah confess that Jesus Christ 
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." And that 
being true, the babe that breathed its last in the 
arms of its mother, must have a voice in that grand 
chorus of glory to God in Christ Jesus. But before 
it can do that, it must first have been instructed in 
those truths of the gospel by which it shall know 
that Jesus Christ is the Saviour. And then, whether 
men shall have sprinkled water on its head or 
dipped its little body into water, or not, will in that 
day make no difference as to its standing before 
God and its condition in eternity. 



The Passover 273 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE PASSOVER AND THE LORD'S SUPPER. 

The means instituted by Jehovah to accom- 
phsh the separation of the Isrehtes and to fill them 
with loathing for the religious ideas and habits 
of the heathen, were effective for the purpose. 

But while segregation of that people was the 
immediate result of the methods of service and the 
duties imposed by the law, these services and the 
peculiar methods of rendering them, all or nearly 
all, had a deep spiritual significance ; some of which 
might have been understood in those days, by that 
few who having set themselves to walk with God 
sought with the whole heart to understand His 
ways. But for the most part these things could not 
be understood until the light of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ shone upon them, and then by that light 
they are found to be types illustrative of the gospel 
and of the personal character to be attained and 
of the kind of services to be rendered by that bodv 
of disciples of which Jesus Christ is the head. 

Paul says, '* Whatsoever things were written 
aforetime, were written for our learning." It is 
therefore of the greatest importance that the types 
of the Old Testament shall be correctly and clearly 
understood by us. The features of an individual, 
or of a building, may be described with the greatest 



274 The Eternal Purpose 

verbal accuracy; but if several artists shall under- 
take to draw a likeness from that verbal description, 
there will be very marked differences in the pictures 
produced, though doubtless a general resemblance. 
But if together with the verbal description, several 
photographs, taken at various angles are shown, 
then drawings made by any number of artists, from 
both the verbal and the photographic testimonies, 
would be substantially alike. Such are the Old 
Testament types — pictures of the gospel. The New 
Testament makes a verbal statement of the gospel 
and of the character necessary to be attained and of 
the services to be rendered by the disciples of Jesus. 
But from that verbal showing, great differences 
of interpretation have developed and a multitude 
of sects have arisen. These differences and conse- 
quent wranglings need not to have been, if the 
testimony of the types in the Old Testament and 
verbal testimony of the New Testament had been 
carefully taken together and the result proved by 
that divinely given standard, The character of 
Jehovah and the constitution of man. 

Some attempts, indeed, have been made to join 
these testimonies, which have been most unfortu- 
nate and misleading, because that divine standard 
of interpretation has been disregarded, and heathen 
ideas of expiation and the propitiating of an angry 
deity have instead been applied for the interpreta- 
tion of the Old Testament sacrifices for sin, and 
from which, among other serious errors, came the 
doctrine of substitutional atonement, as we have 
already seen in Chapters VII, VIII and IX. 



The Passover 275 

The first of these typical services instituted 
by the Lord was The Passover. Ex. 12:1-51. The 
guih of sin unto death was upon all the people, 
both Egyptian and Israelite ; and the Lord sentenced 
the first-bom of every creature in the land of 
Egypt, both of man and beast, to immediate death, 
excepting such as would believe and obey Him. 
To prove the faith and fidelity of the Israelites, 
and at the same time give to all an object lesson 
that He was the only living God, He told the 
Israelites that each family should choose a lamb or a 
kid and put it apart on the tenth day of the month 
Abib (Nisan) and on the evening of the fourteenth, 
they should kill it and smear some of the blood 
on the two door posts and over the door of the house, 
and then all the family must gather in the house 
and roast and eat the lamb ; they should be dressed 
and ready to set out on the journey to get out of 
the land of Egypt, and whatever of the lamb re- 
mained uneaten, they should bum with fire, no 
part of it should be left behind nor carried away, 
for in that night Jehovah would send the destroyer 
over the land and put to death the first-born of all ; 
but the families of those who believed and obeyed 
Him in respect to this matter, and had placed 
themselves within the blood-stained door, would be 
passed over; because that blood, on the two sides 
and over the door took away the guilt of sin; for 
it proved the faith and obedience of those within. 
The Lord commanded that the Israelites should 
observe that passover on the fourteenth of the 
month Abib, through all their generations, as a 



276 The Eternal Purpose 

memorial of their deliverance from Egypt where 
they were bond slaves. 

When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he exclaimed 
in the hearing of those that were near by, *' Behold 
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the 
world." In that saying, John was alluding to the 
passover lamb, of which, with prophetic insight, 
he declared Jesus to be the antitype. That as the 
blood of the passover lamb betokened the faith and 
obedience of those within the door, and so took 
away the guilt of sin from those typical people of 
God; so now, *'As many as received Him, to them 
gave He power to become the children of God,'' 
the real antitypical people of God, and such ones, 
*'The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth from 
all sin." For to believe with the heart that Jesus is 
**the Christ the Son of the living God" and that His 
blood was *'shed for the forgiveness of sins," and 
that "we are reconciled unto God by the death 
of His Son," is evidence that we have ceased from 
rebellion and that we have come with our hearts 
into harmony with the Creator. 

When the typical people of God had entered 
in through the blood-stained door, they ate the 
flesh of the lamb. It thereby entered into their 
flesh and their bone, and in the strength of that 
food they journeyed out of Egypt. 

Egypt is the type of the ungodly world, in the 
bondage of sin, given up to fleshly appetites, pleas- 
ures, banqueting, adultery, fornication, lying, steal- 
ing, cheating, robbery, oppressions, murder and 
struggles after riches and worldly honors. Israel 



The Passover 277 

eating the sacrificial lamb and at once hastening 
out of Egypt, typified the people who, having tasted 
the good word of God, immediately determine to 
quit all the abominations of the world and hence- 
forth walk in the ways of the Creator. But against 
such all the world quickly combines and follows 
them like Pharaoh's host bent on returning them 
to the bondage of sin. And this combination is too 
strong for them ; only God can make them perfectly 
free and, if He does it, the separation will be as 
complete as that of Israel from Egypt with the 
Red Sea between them. But this the Lord will do 
or indeed, only can do, on terms which harmonize 
perfectly with their own m.ental and spiritual 
organism. If they will successfully escape the 
pollutions of the world, they must be strengthened 
in the inner man by that food prepared by the 
Creator, that spiritual food, ''every word which 
proceedeth from the mouth of God." And that 
must be eaten, it must be taken in and mentally 
digested until our spiritual nature is assimilated 
with the ways of the Lord, as the flesh of the pass- 
over lamb was eaten and assimilated with the blood 
and bone of every Israelite. 

Had the Jews understood the spiritual signifi- 
cance of eating the flesh of the passover lamb, 
they would have understood Jesus when He said, 
*' Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and 
drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso 
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal 
life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For 
my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink 



278 The Eternal Purpose 

indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh 
my blood dwelleth in Me and I in him. As the 
living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, 
so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me. 
This is that bread which cometh down from heaven, 
not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead; 
he that eateth this bread shall live forever." John 
6:53-58. 

The flesh of Christ Jesus represents His human 
life, as day by day He mingled with the people 
and told them the good tidings of the kingdom of 
God. *'He went about doing good and healing all 
that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with 
Him." Acts 10:38. He wept with them that 
wept. Johnl 1:32-35. And He entered into the 
joys of those that rejoiced. John 2:1, 2. He had 
compassion on the bereaved. Luke 7:13. And in 
all their afflictions. He was afflicted. Isa. 63:9. 
But He was despised and rejected of men ; a man of 
sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was op- 
pressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not 
His mouth. Isa. 53. 

To eat the flesh of Jesus is to thoroughly 
familiarize ourselves with all the incidents of His 
daily life in the flesh. His manner of associating 
with people and lifting them up to the conception 
of the goodness and loving kindness of God, and 
then, to make that manner of His life, the habit 
of our life. To eat the flesh of Jesus is also to 
closely and unceasingly study the plan of salvation 
in Christ Jesus in order to gain that knowledge which 
is power, the power of God, to the pulling down of the 



The Passover 279 

strongholds of sin and religious errors, and the 
power of God unto salvation of every one that 
believes, so that we may be able to tell the story 
of the kingdom of God as Jesus told it. 

The blood of the typical passover lamb was 
smeared on the door posts, where it could be seen 
by all. The blood of Jesus Christ, the antitypical 
Lamb, must be spiritually drank. And as that 
which is spiritually eaten stands for that knowledge 
and understanding of the gospel by which is a 
comprehension of the Christ life, and by which 
there is power in the gospel work, so that which is 
spiritually drank stands for taking into the heart 
that holy spirit of Christ, which says with all the 
energy of one's whole being, "Lo, I come to do thy 
will, O God." 

It is the spirit of being transformed into the 
likeness of Jesus, and "The fruit of that spirit 
is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, 
faith, meekness, self-control." And these dwelling 
within have their outward manifestations in the 
manners of life, like the blood of the slain lamb 
on the door posts, to he seen by all. 

As the blood is the life of the flesh (Lev. 17:14,) 
so the spirit of Christ gives life and motive to all 
our natural faculties, by which we may obtain knowl- 
edge of the truth and use it to the glory of God. 
But as the flesh is dead without blood, so are all 
natural and acquired abilities dead and useless, 
without the spirit of Christ; for "though I speak 
with the tongues of men and angels, and have not 
lovey I am become as sounding brass and a tinkling 



280 The Eternal Purpose 

cymbal; and though I have prophecy and under- 
stand all mystery, and all knowledge, and have not 
lovCy I am nothing." And ''if any man have not 
the spirit of Christ, he is none of His." 1 Cor. 13 :1, 2 
Rom. 8:9. Again: Where there is no flesh there 
can be no blood, and where there is no knowledge 
of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, there can be no 
indwelling spirit of Christ. Therefore knowledge of 
the truth as it is in Christ is essential to being a 
follower of Jesus. 

As the type always looks forward to and 
ceases with the coming of the antitype, so the 
memorial observance of the typical passover 
and the escape of the typical people of God 
from Egypt had no further use and must cease 
when Jesus the Messiah, the Christ of God, the 
anti typical Lamb of God, was sacrificed on the cross 
to take away the sin of the world; and the escape 
of the antitypical, the true children of God, from 
the enslavement to sin and the impure ways of 
the world was thereby assured. 

THE lord's supper. 

The particulars of the last typical passover and 
of the new ordinance, ''The Lord's Supper," (1 Cor. 
11:20), which should take its place, are given by 
Matthew, 26:17-29; Mark 14:12-25; Luke 22:1-20; 
and by Paul, 1 Cor. 11 :23-29. 

The ordinance of the Mosaic law which had looked 
back to the typical deliverance of God's people, 
and forward to the real deliverance from the bondage 



The Lord's Supper 281 

and slavery of sin, ceased. The new ordinance, 
likewise looks back as a memorial to the sacrifice 
of Christ, when He suffered to **take away the sin 
of the world," and at the same time looks forward 
to His coming again, at God's appointed time, not 
as a sacrifice for sin, but in glory and great power, 
when He will banish the dominion of sin out of the 
earth. 

Paul's account of this ordinance which was to 
take the place of the Mosaic passover is in these 
words, ''I received from the Lord that which also I 
delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same 
night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and 
when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, 
*Take, eat; this is my body which is broken for 
you; this do in remembrance of me. After the 
same manner also. He took the cup, and when He 
had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament 
(covenant) in my blood; this do ye as oft as ye 
drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as 
ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew 
the Lord's death till He comes." 1 Cor. 11:23-26. 

The Apostle affirms that he * 'received frovi the 
Lord'' the account of this ordinance, just as he 
has delivered it to us. Indeed he claimed that he 
received the whole gospel directly from the Lord, 
and not from those who were apostles before he 
was, and that when he associated with them, they 
added nothing to his knowledge and understanding. 

Paul was not present with the other apostles 
when the Master, at the time of the last passover, 
instituted this new ordinance. He was not yet 



282 The Eternal Purpose 

converted: and the fact that he did not receive 
it by hearsay from those who were present, but 
that the Lord Himself revealed it to him, along with 
all the other doctrines and practices of the gospel, 
is evidence that the right understanding and the 
right observance of the ordinance is of great import- 
ance. The supper of the passover, under the law, 
consisted of roast lamb, unleavened bread, and 
bitter herbs; and the new ordinance consists of 
bread and wine. No wine belonged to the passover, 
under the law, and if, at a later day it was intro- 
duced, it was simply an unlawful innovation like 
many other * 'traditions of the elders." 

The Lord Jesus, Himself, gave the spiritual 
meaning of the figures, both of the bread and the 
wine, at the time that He instituted the ordinance. 
Of the bread. He said, "This is my body which is 
broken for you;" of the wine He said, '^Thiscupis 
the new testament in my blood." As in the pass- 
over, the body and blood of the lamb represented 
the body and blood of Christ who should come and 
suffer, and whose character should be absorbed 
by His disciples, so now the bread and wine repre- 
sent the body and blood of Christ who has come in the 
flesh and has suffered and died ; and now in eating 
that bread and drinking that wine, each one so 
doing, says, in that figure, "The purpose and habit 
of Christ's life in the flesh I have made the pur- 
pose and habit of my life so long as I am in the flesh ; 
and the spirit which actuated Him to devote Him- 
self to the salvation of the people, I have received, 
and being actuated by it, I devote my life to the 



The Lord's Supper 283 

work of persuading the people to be reconciled 
unto God. And as He gave His life to accomplish 
His purpose, likewise 'Neither count I my life dear 
unto myself, so that I might finish my course with 
joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the 
Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of 
God.' " Acts 20:24. But many professing faith 
in Christ Jesus, have never discerned the spiritual 
significance of the body of Christ in the figure of the 
bread. His habit of every-day life, lifting others up 
toward God, has never become their habit ; they 
never entered into that covenant, and so have never 
been truly *'in Christ." Others who have made 
that covenant with God have neglected it. Such 
persons, living in neglect of their covenant, as 
the disciples of Jesus, are acting a lie, if they 
eat that bread and drink that wine. And for 
that reason they eat and drink judgment against 
themselves. And for this cause many are spir- 
itually weak and spiritually sick and many are 
even spiritually dead; though professing faith in 
Christ. Vss. 29, 30. Therefore let each one exam- 
ine himself, whether he is indeed living near to 
the intentions of his covenant with God, which he 
entered into by faith in the redemption that is in 
Christ Jesus. And then may he eat that bread 
and drink that cup * 'discerning the body" and 
without condemnation, but receiving the blessing 
from the Lord. 

And it is this season of self-examination and 
comparing one's own habits with the habits of 
Jesus when He was in the flesh, that gives genuine 



284 The Eternal Purpose 

value to this ordinance. The Lord who knows 
our frame and remembers that we are dust, appointed 
it in His wisdom for our good; and it meets the 
necessities of all His disciples; of all who have 
covenanted to be 'laborers together with God," 
and to ''walk with God," as He is manisfested 
in Christ Jesus. 

WHEN SHAI.Iv THE LORD'S SUPPER BE OBSERVED? 

Under the law, the passover was observed on the 
evening of the fourteenth day of the month Abib 
afterward called Nisan, that month began with 
the new moon nearest to the vernal equinox, which 
occurs about March 21st; so the fourteenth day, 
or the time of the passover, would be the full moon 
after the vernal equinox, and would therefore 
always occur in the latter part of March or forepart 
of April, according to the modem calendar. By the 
Bible system, the day always begins with the going 
down of the sun, and so the evening is the first 
part of the day, followed by the night, and then by 
the dawn of light and at last by the full light of 
day. Jesus and His twelve apostles together ate 
the passover in the evening of the fourteenth of 
the month Nisan, according to the law, and at 
the same time He ordained the supper of bread 
and wine ; and during that night. He was betrayed 
by Judas, and by six o'clock in the morning He 
was condemned to death, and died on the cross 
about three o'clock, after noon; and was quickly 
buried. All this was yet the fourteenth day of 



The Lord's Supper 285 

Nisan. Many Christians continned to observe 
*'the Lord's Supper" in commemoration of His death 
annually, on the fourteenth day of Nisan for several 
centuries; but after a time, others preferred to 
observe the day of the week on which tradition 
said that Christ arose from the dead (Sunday) 
and after much discussion and not a little acrimony, 
it was finally decreed by the council of Nice, A.D. 
325, that the Sunday after the full moon succeeding 
the vernal equinox, should be observed instead of 
the fourteenth of Nisan. And they called that 
festival Easter, the name of an annual heathen 
festival occurring about the same time. And the 
celebration of Easter was for the resurrection of 
Christ instead of for His death. But some con- 
tinued to observe the Lord's supper on the fourteenth 
of Nisan as a memorial of "The Lord's death until 
He come." And they paid no attention to the 
Easter decree, until persecutions by the Roman 
Church at last abolished their practice. But since 
the Reformation, the Protestant churches, generally, 
have resumed the Lord's supper as a memorial 
of His death; but the time of its observance has 
not generally been considered important, though 
some think it should be weekly. In recent times, 
however, some have renewed that annual observance 
of the Lord's supper as a memorial of His death, 
on the evening of the fourteenth of Nisan, that is, 
the full moon following March 21st, believing that 
in so doing they are carrying out the intention 
of the Lord Jesus. And there are some forcible 
reasons in favor of the annual observance rather 



286 The Eternal Purpose 

than more frequently, such as that it is a time for 
the special consideration of that part of the gospel 
which shows the relation of Christ's sufferings and 
death to the salvation of sinners; and His second 
coming in power and great glory, when He shall take 
His disciples to be with Himself (1 Thess. 4:14-18), 
and bring the ungodly world into judgment. But 
as the gospel of Jesus Christ embraces very much 
most important truth besides that of His death, 
resurrection and second coming, which must also 
be studied and learned by all His disciples, it follows 
that a too frequent recurrence of the memorial 
of His death, such as once a week or once a month 
would interfere with the proper and necessary 
promulgation of these other truths. And besides, 
human nature is such that the very frequent recur- 
rence of any memorial tends to make its observance 
a mere machine action. It is evident, however, 
that the Lord Jesus did not intend for us to under- 
stand that He placed us under a law, in respect to 
the time of observing this memorial. He left it 
in such shape that we might act with that wisdom 
and charity that is becoming to the children pf 
God. 



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